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It’s been a tough start for Sepp van den Berg’s Liverpool career.
The young centre back arrived from the Netherlands with a lot of promise, but hasn’t really made any sort of impact at Anfield yet. The performances we’ve seen in the first team have been well short of what’s required.
It doesn’t seem to be getting him down. He’s enjoying life at the club.
“The warmth you feel, as a young player at Liverpool, is so special”, The Mirror report Van den Berg as saying.
“I will tell you the best example of this. At other clubs, you arrive in the morning and people will say ‘Good morning’ or shake hands.
“But, here at Liverpool, you get a hug from the manager! Jurgen Klopp gives you a hug – and it’s those special little things that made all the young players feel appreciated and valued.
“That kind of warmth from the manager gives us the hope that we are all on the path to the Liverpool first team.”
Speaking of his own move, Van den Berg explained that “I was amazed that such big clubs wanted to sign me and I thought PSV Eindhoven was a brilliant option for me because I have been a fan from a young age.
“But, once Liverpool came for me, I knew where I would go because I can only describe my feelings for the club as mega.
“It is such a big club, but, at the same time, it feels like a family club.
“Thanks to Klopp’s approach and vision, I am up against the best attackers in the world several times a week.
“He lets me train and play against Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane.
“That is something I could only have dreamt of in the past. These guys really belong to the very best attackers on this globe.
“Of course, it is hard. But when you are up against them every week and you learn some valuable lessons, then you only get better and stronger.”
This has been a season in which young players have received real opportunities, and the Dutchman thinks it’s fully deserved
“There is a massive amount of talent in this age group. I don’t want to say we’ve now arrived on the big scene because every one of us knows that we still have a mountain to climb.
“But the average age of the team against Shrewsbury was 19.
“We are massively proud of what we achieved on the night and we all talked about it afterwards. The topic of our conversations was that we all want to get into the first team together one day.”