Jurgen Klopp lauds Bayern Munich ahead of Singapore friendly

Bayern Munich is set to square off against Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool in Singapore tomorrow in their fourth preseason friendly of the summer. Alongside the 2-1 friendly loss to Manchester City in Tokyo, Japan, this will likely be the biggest test of preseason for Thomas Tuchel as he’ll continue to get a look at his squad with a little over a week left until their first competitive match of the season in the DFL-Supercup against RB Leipzig.

So far, Bayern has walloped FC Rottach-Egern, lost to Manchester City, and beaten Kawasaki Frontale, while Liverpool has beaten Karlsruher, tied Spvgg Gretuer Furth, and beaten Leicester City. All things considered, both sides have had decent preseasons thus far, though Liverpool have not yet lost. Both sides have also seen positives from their new signings with Konrad Laimer, Raphael Guerreiro, and Kim Min-jae for Bayern and Alexia Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai for Liverpool.

Ahead of the friendly, Klopp lauded the business that Bayern has already done in the transfer window this summer and spoke about the quality he knows the squad possesses. “Bayern are traditionally a really good team. They have four world-class centre-halves, two world-class midfield pairings. Up front, speed and everything amd technique, finishing skills. So that looked quite impressive, to be honest,” he said from a press conference in Singapore (via @iMiaSanMia).

Liverpool’s Premier League campaign opens up the same weekend as Bayern’s Supercup match against Leipzig, so Klopp is appreciative of the opportunity to take on such a strong opponent as the beginning of the competitive season looms large for both clubs. “We wanted a strong opponent, we have a strong opponent, so this is definitely the toughest test for us in this pre-season. But that’s what you need in this moment. I’m excited to see where we are, how we can adapt to the quality of the opponent because that’s part of football,” he explained.

Of course, both sides could still yet make signings after the friendly and before the window closes at the beginning of September. Bayern is still desperately trying to sign Harry Kane from Tottenham and potentially bring in another midfielder and backup keeper for Manuel Neuer. Liverpool is reportedly close to signing Romeo Lavia from Southampton and Klopp has also said he wants to try to find another defender before the window closes.