Sepp van den Berg Makes Debut for Preston North End

The Ben Davies transfer feels like a lifetime ago and the defender has yet to make his debut for Liverpool FC due to a knock in training. Perhaps an afterthought to the whole transfer, it’s nice to finally see Sepp van den Berg, who headed to Preston North End on a loan deal, play his first game in the Championship on Wednesday night in a goalless draw against Queens Park Rangers at home.

The big young orange-haired Dutchman was fielded at right-back, not his natural position, but still put in a “steady” performance, displaying a willingness to get on the ball, and defending doggedly against an attacking QPR left-side. That willingness to show himself led to the most touches (69) of anyone in the PNE side. Sepp also lasted the full 90 minutes, making two key passes, with an overall 76% pass accuracy. Defensively, he put in two tackles, made two clearances, three interceptions. For distribution, he pinged three accurate long-balls and sent in two crosses.

PNE manager Alex Neil had some good things to say after the game:

Excellent, to be fair we did play our right and left-back in a certain way in terms of keeping them in, they weren’t as expansive.

We know Sepp is very good on the ball, he’s quick and gives us good size in terms of defending crosses into the box.

I thought he had a really good performance for his first game, really strong.

Defensively he was strong, on the ball he was strong and got his distances right - he’s a good player and with your first game at any club, you always want to set a marker down.

I think tonight a lot of fans will look at him and hope that he can continue that because I thought he was very good. He played men’s football at 16-years-old, he is certainly confident and I think he believes in his ability.