22-year-old Liverpool player suggests he’d like to leave England and play in Serie A one day

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It hasn’t been the best season for Liverpool’s array of young players out on-loan.

A number have seen their season-long spells cut short at the halfway mark. The likes of Fabio Carvalho and Rhys Williams are now at their second club’s of the season.

But in amidst that, there have been a couple of success stories. Perhaps the best has been Tyler Morton’s stint at Hull City. Morton was at it again last night, assisting Carvalho for his first goal since his move to Humberside.

Another has been Sepp van den Berg at Mainz. After seeing a season at Schalke ruined by injury last year, Sepp has returned to the Bundesliga and been very good indeed. Due back at Liverpool in the summer, it’ll be interesting to see what next year holds for the 22-year-old. If his quotes to ESPN Netherlands this week are anything to go by, he could be just about anywhere.

“I called [recently sacked Ajax manager] Maurice Steijn in the summer,” says Van den Berg when asked about the chances of joining the giants of his homeland.

“It wasn’t very concrete, but there was interest. Ajax remains a huge club, but I’ve set my sights more on foreign countries. Certainly England or Germany. When I look outside now, I might also want to go to Italy or Spain. I’ve been working abroad since I was a kid and never say never, but I’m focusing on going abroad this summer.”

Van den Berg looking outside of the Eredivise

Some might take these quotes to mean that Van den Berg is looking for a way out of Liverpool regardless ahead of next season.

But we think his mention of England actually means he’s hoping to play in the Premier League one day. That could still be at Liverpool.

Nevertheless, it’s obvious that Van den Berg is far from certain about where he’ll be playing in 2024/25.

Now 22, it’s about time that the Netherlands U21 international settled down with a club. From our point of view, we’d still like to see him given a chance in Jurgen Klopp’s first-team.

Sepp looks to have come on so much since his first forays into the senior side in 2019/20. A really good spell at Preston North End got him out of his shell and he now looks like a proper centre-half.

As well as now physically looking the part, Van den Berg is exceedingly quick. That kind of pace is what can separate a good defender from a great one.

For now though, we’d still be surprised to see the Mainz man as part of Liverpool’s squad next season. There is potentially a spot there up for grabs, but we just feel that Van den Berg hasn’t quite won the coaching staff over enough. Chances are that he’ll be sold instead.

If he is and ends up in Spain or Italy, don’t be surprised to see him excelling there, too. Liverpool should think long and hard about this one. Sepp clearly has ambitions, the Reds should make sure they don’t fall foul of them.