Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has branded Manchester City squad as “incredible” and believes that Pep Guardiola’s side are favourites to lift the Premier League trophy this season.
The Reds manager has heaped praise on the attacking line-up of Guardiola’s huge-spending squad.
Speaking ahead of the new season with Arsenal set to lock horns with Leicester on Friday evening, Klopp accentuated that the signing of Gabriel Jesus and other new arrivals at the Etihad this summer have made Guardiola’s side an extremely powerful unit.
Manchester City have roped in six players early this summer in a sensational £218m summer spending spree. Guardiola have signed goalkeeper Ederson, attacking midfielder Bernardo Silva, central midfielder Douglas Luiz and full-backs Kyle Walker, Danilo and Benjamin Mendy.
Klopp told DAZN: “The favourites must be Manchester City actually. They played some incredible football last year and had just a couple of problems.”
“They are definitely the favourites. Manchester City is in attack mode, that is obvious.”
“They already had an incredible team last season and then Jesus joined them and I thought, ‘Oh my goodness.”
“I mean he is very young and really strong. Incredible player – and now they got some defenders as well. They will be interesting to watch.”
Klopp, who is preparing his side for an away clash with Watford at Vicarage Road on Saturday, said: “I’m obviously wishing for the highest possible finish. Manchester United will want to strike back.
“We will see how Chelsea will do without Costa. [Alvaro] Morata is a great signing but they also lost [Nemanja] Matic. We will see. They still have a pretty great team.”
“We will have to align. Not subordinate and then on the specific days [against the league’s best teams] we have to be there and try to beat them, but also try to get as many points as possible out of the other matches.”
Klopp backed Man City for Premier League triumph, but his side hold an incredible record against them – winning five out of their last eight encounters, losing just twice.
He said: “We actually have a good record [against City]. Of course, there is no guarantee that that record will stay this way, but we do have some ideas how to play against Pep’s teams. Nevertheless, it is always tough.”
“Manchester City being the favourites, doesn’t mean they are going to end up winning the title.”
“They are my favourites, but we can gather our points without looking at them, since we only play them twice. So we don’t really need to think too much about them.”
“The other teams aren’t stagnating as well. They will try everything too. We for our part will try to stabilise in the top region [of the table] and we will try to take the next step.”