Sadly, we didn’t get to see our only signing of the summer so far against Tranmere last night, as Liverpool cantered to a 6-0 win at Prenton Park.
Sepp van den Berg hasn’t yet got the appropriate international clearance from FIFA, so can only train and not feature in any matches – competitive or otherwise.
The 17-year-old though should be available by the time the US Tour starts, with the squad flying out next Tuesday after Sunday’s friendly with Bradford.
And we can expect to see Sepp VDB at least once, we reckon, if these comments by Jurgen Klopp are anything to go by.
The centre-back has impressed the boss in training, so much so that Klopp says he consistently forgets he’s dealing with someone so young.
In fairness, when you see the size of the lad, it’s not hard to see why!
“It depends. I open the door but the boys have to go through still,” Klopp told the Evening Express, when asked about whether the Dutchman may feature in the first-team this year.
“He is a wonderful player as well, but because of FIFA rules he is not available in the moment, but we have other good players.
“He thought his future should be here and I thought the same, so now he is here and now let’s work together.
“He is 17 years old and when you see him you forget that constantly, but he is 17 and so there is a lot to learn.
“The good thing is he has the most time to do so, so everything will be fine.”
We’d predict Van den Berg’s first-team minutes will be restricted this term – not because he doesn’t have talent – but because there are four seasoned internationals ahead of him in the pecking order.
Virgil van Dijk is the best central defender on the planet and will not be dropped under any circumstances – so Joe Gomez, Joel Matip and Dejan Lovren are essentially competing for one spot alongside him.
Oddly, Van den Berg’s best hope of game time is that the three mentioned defenders are incredibly injury prone, not that he should be wishing that on a new team-mate!