Dejan Lovren will get his first meaningful test as a Saints player tonight as he attempts to keep quiet a striker who has cost more than £50m.

The Croatian centre half will be entrusted with marking prolific Dutch striker Klass-Jan Huntelaar, whose glittering career has seen him play for the likes of Real Madrid and AC Milan, as Saints step up their pre-season preparations with a game against German side Schalke in Austria.

Lovren joined Saints for £8.5m this summer and has already played a half in each of the club’s Spanish pre-season friendlies, the wins over UE Llagostera and Palamos.

But in those games he was up against players from the lower echelons of Spanish football, whereas tonight he has to deal with some genuine superstars.

Huntelaar is arguably the biggest name in the Schalke side, having starred for Heerenveen, Ajax, Real Madrid, AC Milan and now the German side who paid €14m to sign him in 2010. Since then Huntelaar has gone on to score 47 goals in 82 appearances.

His club career stats boast an impressive 264 goals in 411 appearances with a further 34 goals in 59 games for the Netherlands.

Marking him will certainly be a good warm-up for the new Premier League season for Lovren and the rest of his Saints teammates.

Schalke will provide a stern test. They finished fourth in the Bundesliga last time out and have several star names, including hot property Julian Draxler, linked with a string of big money summer moves, and Peruvian superstar Jefferson Farfan.

They are managed by Jens Keller, who was appointed in December last year.

Schalke have already attracted a crowd of 4,000 to watch them play in the Stadion Villach Lind ground in Austria in which they face Saints this evening.

They drew 1-1 with Saints’ opponents on Saturday, Besiktas, with Draxler scoring the Schalke goal.

There could be first pre-season outings for Maya Yoshida and Gaston Ramirez with the pair having been given extra time to rest following their exploits in the Confederations Cup, while Victor Wanyama could also get more game time.