Sepp van den Berg has been speaking to the media during the international break, and he made an interesting revelation about his exit from Liverpool.
What’s the story?
Well, the £1.3m man spent last season on loan at Preston, where he impressed in 16 Championship appearances.
The 19-year-old returned to Merseyside in the summer, where Jürgen Klopp planned to keep him, although the teenager had other ideas.
Speaking to NOS, Van den Berg said: “Actually, the plan was to participate in the preparation with the first-team of Liverpool this season, but I thought it was best to be rented out for another year.
“He (Van Dijk) asked me how I thought it went at Preston and told me that he thought it was a good choice because making minutes is so important.”
Fair play to the Dutchman.
It takes a lot to go against one of Europe’s biggest clubs and put your own development first, which is exactly what Van den Berg did.
He is currently performing superbly for Preston, and already has two goals in seven appearances this season.
Some Liverpool fans were even shocked to see how quick Van den Berg had become, after footage emerged of him playing against Huddersfield recently.
Liverpool should loan Sepp van den Berg out again
With all due respect to the wonderkid, he should probably already be thinking about where he wants to spend the 2022/23 season.
Klopp already has the likes of Ibrahima Konate, Joe Gomez and Nat Phillips warming the bench behind Virgil van Dijk and Joël Matip.
In that respect, how can Van den Berg expect to get any sort of action, even in cup games?
Unless Klopp sells at least two of his centre-backs, the youngster should definitely think about staying with Preston for a third season.
In our view, a better scenario would be a Premier League loan, as he’s already shown he’s more than capable of playing Championship football.
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