Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has recently been discussing some of the club’s young talents, including Dutch centre-back Sepp Van den Berg, following the Reds’ 6-0 win over Blackburn Rovers in a friendly earlier this week.
The German told the club’s official website: “For Sepp, it is always hard for centre-halves. We have four, so sitting outside [but] he looks really promising in training sessions.”
The 18-year-old appears to have made a positive impression on his boss at Melwood and Klopp appeared to be sympathetic towards the situation the defender finds himself in. With Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez, Joel Matip and Dejan Lovren all ahead of him in the pecking order, it feels unlikely he will get much game time unless one of the aforementioned players departs Anfield.
Van den Berg arrived on Merseyside from Eredivisie club PEC Zwolle in July 2019 for a reported fee of £1.71m (as per Transfermarkt.co.uk). He’s been a regular fixture in the club’s Under 23s, having started 11 of their 17 Premier League 2 games this season. Although he is yet to feature for the Reds in the Premier League, he has made three appearances in the League Cup and played 90 minutes in the FA Cup win against Shrewsbury at Anfield back in February.
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From Klopp’s comments, we can assume he feels the player is on the right path towards possibly establishing himself as a first-team regular in the future. If Liverpool are able to wrap up the Premier League title in the next couple of weeks, it will be interesting to see if Van den Berg is given an opportunity to test himself in league competition before the end of the campaign.