Sepp van den Berg reveals moment he knew he had to quit Liverpool for Premier League transfer

Former Liverpool defender Sepp van den Berg has spoken out on the frustration he felt at Anfield before securing his exit in the summer.

Van den Berg completed a $32m (£25m/€30m) move to Brentford during the most recent transfer window, bringing an end to his five-year association with the Reds. Most of that time though was spent away from Anfield.

After joining the club in 2019, the 22-year-old took in loan spells at Preston, Schalke and Mainz that spanned four years in total. Van den Berg only made four appearances in total for Liverpool – a tally he has already equaled at Brentford.

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He was handed an opportunity to impress new head coach Arne Slot during the summer as he featured heavily in Liverpool’s pre-season tour of the USA. Van den Berg though had already made his feelings clear that he wanted to leave the club, having previously criticized the Reds for setting their asking price too high.

Having now got his wish, the defender has opened up on his time at Liverpool, and the moment in which he decided he wanted to leave the club, which came long before he eventually got his exit.

“[I am] central to the defence in training against the starting XI, you have to build up and then Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Mo Salah all come running towards you,” he told De Telegraaf. “It was tough, I enjoyed it.

“But in all honesty, I wasn’t looked after anymore. I felt ready [in 2021]. I had a good conversation with the management. He said he had received good reports. I understood that I wasn’t going to play Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip or Ibrahima Konate out the team. But I thought I could be right behind it.”

Van den Berg added: “When I didn’t get a chance again, I said, ‘Figure it out, I want to leave. You [Liverpool] didn’t exude confidence in me all this time, but you do want to hinder my future. I want to keep playing every week and develop myself further’.”

Liverpool.com says: You can understand Van den Berg’s frustrations, but at the same time, Liverpool was proven right in its stance to hold firm on his valuation.

It’s not a great look from Van den Berg to be claiming the Reds were ‘hindering’ his development’ After all, he is still 22, and sending him out on loan back in 2021 – when he still would have been a teenager – was absolutely the right decision, especially if Liverpool felt he could be a player for the future.

Hopefully he can hit the sort of form Liverpool thought he was capable of back in 2019 at Brentford now. He’s certainly set himself up on a high pedestal with his comments.