Liverpool have done well to keep their whole squad together following Jurgen Klopp’s departure.
The Reds have so far been incredibly inactive in the transfer market, both in terms of incomings and outgoings.
While that is understandably frustrating for supporters on the new arrivals side of things, Liverpool deserve praise for blocking the exit door.
It isn’t as though anyone was necessarily clamouring to follow Klopp out of the exit, especially from the first-team squad. But keeping everyone has meant Arne Slot is able to have a look at the whole group. Those who are available, anyway.
With the transfer window still having more than a month to run, Liverpool are still expected to do business. But after Slot has assessed each player, it might be that they lose a couple, too.
PSV Eindhoven continue Sepp van den Berg push
Despite no one leaving Liverpool during the off-season so far, that has not been for a lack of rumours to the contrary.
From Alisson Becker and Virgil van Dijk to Luis Diaz and even Wataru Endo. There feels to have been a question mark over whether a fair few of Slot’s squad would report back on Merseyside.
One of those who has perhaps the biggest debate over his future at the club is Sepp van den Berg.
Van den Berg expressed his desire to leave Liverpool before even coming back from a successful season on-loan at Mainz. It was at the Bundesliga side where Van den Berg was hailed as an ‘incredible talent.’
The 22-year-old seemingly felt that the Reds were unfairly pricing him out of a move to a team where he could play more first-team football.
READ MORE: Liverpool could sell three players and move to sign £38m Bundesliga defender
However, there have been claims that Slot has been impressed by Van den Berg during the early weeks of pre-season. He’ll have a chance to cement his place in the head coach’s plans during the tour of the USA.
Even if the centre-back does continue to catch Slot’s eye though, Dutch outlet Eindhovens Dagblad report that PSV Eindhoven will not stop ‘pushing’ to bring him back to the Netherlands.
It’s claimed that Liverpool will still ‘probably’ let Van den Berg go for around £17m. PSV are reportedly unwilling to go that high, though, but will put a ‘substantial’ offer on the table nonetheless.
With Van den Berg currently away with Liverpool, PSV are said to be happy to wait until towards the end of August to get a deal done. Stuttgart are also claimed to be interested in the defender.
Liverpool must make Van den Berg decision
All through the summer so far, centre-back has been the area that Liverpool have appeared most likely to strengthen in.
The Reds missed out on Leny Yoro to Manchester United, of course, but there have also been new claims that Liverpool wanted to sign Jorrel Hato from Ajax at an early stage of the window.
There are clearly a couple of reasons why they have decided not to go all in for any one target. But the main one feels like being tied in with Van den Berg.
We still think Van den Berg will be Liverpool’s ‘new’ centre-back for next season and if the Netherlands U21 star has impressed Slot to that extent, then we have no problem with that.
But if Van den Berg is not quite up to scratch, then the Reds would be wise to accept PSV’s offer and get cracking on getting a new player through the door. It’s coming up to crunch time.
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