Bayern cautious ahead Holstien Kiel meeting
Bayern Munich boss Vincent Kompany has warned his players that Holstein Kiel's record against the top teams makes it a dangerous Bundesliga opponent this weekend.
Relegation-threatened Kiel has just three top-flight wins this season, while host Bayern has 48 points from 19 matches and sits six points clear at the top of the standings, so will go into the match as the overwhelming favourite.
Bayern has scored the most goals and conceded the fewest in the league, while struggling Kiel is 17th on the table with 12 points, having conceded 48 goals already.
However, Kiel claimed a shock 4-2 win over Borussia Dortmund this month.
It also held defending champion Bayer Leverkusen to a 2-2 draw in October and drew 2-2 with seventh-placed Wolfsburg last week, so Kompany has seen enough in those games to adopt a cautious mindset going into the game.
"It's good to hear that we have the best attack and defence – that shows we are doing our job, it's always about mentality," Kompany said.
"Holstein Kiel is my priority. Look at what Kiel did against Dortmund, Leverkusen and Wolfsburg. That is a feeling they can bring against us.
"We don't distinguish between opponents; I just want to go into the game with hunger."
If Bayern can record a sixth straight league win, it will be its outright best streak of the season. It equalled its joint-best winning run of the Bundesliga campaign last week with a narrow 2-1 win at Freiburg.
This will be a milestone match for striker Harry Kane, who is set to make his 50th Bundesliga appearance.
Even if he fails to score against Kiel, the England striker will still hold the record for the most goals by any player in their first 50 games, as he already has 53 strikes to his name in the competition.
Kane has racked up seven Bundesliga hat-tricks since moving to Germany, one of which came against Holstein Kiel in a 6-1 away win during the reverse fixture.
That September match also saw Jamal Musiala score the club's third-quickest Bundesliga goal after just 14 seconds.
Kompany also weighed in on the German Football League's (DFL) decision to launch a pilot project where referees will explain video assistant referee (VAR) decisions to fans in the stadium via loudspeakers starting this weekend.
He said: "It's an innovation if it's about communication in the stadium. We've seen it in other sports. I'm always in favour of innovation, so let's see how it goes.
"Compared to other leagues, the Bundesliga has fewer and shorter VAR stoppages. It often takes longer in other leagues.
"We need to see what happens now, but I welcome the general idea of looking for more transparency."
Bayern, which failed to finish in the top eight in the UEFA Champions League group stage and missed out on automatic Round of 16 qualification, was set to learn its next opponents in the competition shortly after Kompany spoke.
It was ultimately drawn to face Scottish Premiership champion Celtic, avoiding a clash with Premier League champion Manchester City, for whom Kompany played 360 matches and won four Premier League titles.
