Brentford’s Sepp Van den Berg: ‘At points at Liverpool I was going home crying’

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Now Slot had been confirmed as Jürgen Klopp’s successor at Liverpool and he was looking forward to the start of pre-season.“I was a bit surprised,” Van den Berg says. It was just funny … coming from the same hometown, he’d coached me when I was a kid and now he’s the guy at Liverpool.

Are you ready for pre-season?’ I said: ‘Yes, of course.’ But in my own head, I was thinking: ‘Yeah, I’m ready but hopefully I’m not even coming back for pre-season,’ because I wanted to leave.’”Van den Berg’s move to Liverpool from PEC Zwolle as a 17-year-old in 2019 had descended into a nightmare. Photograph: Malcolm Couzens/Getty ImagesVan den Berg would endure a horror ankle injury on loan at Schalke in 2022-23 that needed surgery and almost seven months out but Mainz could hardly have gone better, even if what he describes as the “hierarchical” system in German football had unusual consequences.“I played every game for Mainz but I was still 20, 21 and so before every training I had to check the air pressure of the balls and if they were not correct I had to blow them up myself – with the two other young players,” he says.

It’s because you are the youngest player.”Van den Berg needed regular starting football and he knew he would not get it at Liverpool. He told me: ‘You’re not going to start but I believe if you stay you will get a chance in the future to start.’”Van den Berg was not swayed.