Sepp van den Berg’s Liverpool career never really took off despite joining the club as a highly-rated teenager in the summer of 2019.

The Dutch defender was sent out on loan to a handful of clubs across the continent and delivered impressive displays, but the competition for places was such that he never got an opportunity to impress.

Arne Slot was really impressed with Van den Berg, who delivered a string of impressive displays in pre-season.

But when Brentford came calling in the summer, Liverpool didn’t stand in his way as he secured a permanent transfer after five years at the club.

And the Dutchman has spoken about his initial struggles at Anfield and the role Virgil van Dijk played when he first joined.

Sepp van den Berg opens up on initial struggles at Liverpool

Van den Berg believes he became a bit of a forgotten man at Liverpool when he first joined the club as he dropped to the reserves after initially training with the first team.

“For example, when I first moved to Liverpool as a 17-year-old; looking back, it was very difficult. I had some tough times there,” said Van den Berg as quoted by Brentford’s website.

“At first, I was training with the first team and everything was amazing, it couldn’t get any better. My dreams came true: I was playing for one of the biggest teams in the world.

“But then I got dropped into the reserves and people started to forget about me a little bit. And then you come home… I lived alone, I had no one to talk to. That was hard for me.

“I struggled with that quite a lot because I was used to being surrounded by a big family where there’s a lot going on and there was always lots of people around me.”

Van den Berg lauds Van Dijk

The Dutchman also spoke about just how much Van Dijk helped him when he first joined as he recounted an episode involving the Liverpool kit man.

“Van Dijk made me feel really welcome,” Van den Berg said.

“I remember, on my first day, he said to the kit man, ‘Make sure his place in the dressing room is next to mine’.

“It was those small things that made me feel more at home. From a footballing perspective, it was just watching him in training and in matches, he was the best defender in the world at that stage… those moments will always stay with me.

“Watching what he does, how he plays, how he speaks, how he leads the team – to see that up close was priceless.”

The Dutchman is yet to make an impact at Brentford, but it remains to be seen how he gets on as the season progresses.

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