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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Nathan Bliss

Liverpool-bound wonderkid Sepp van den Berg's exciting potential revealed - by Football Manager

With defenders Virgil van Dijk and Ki-Jana Hoever already in their ranks, Liverpool could be set to sign another Dutch defender this summer.

The Reds are hoping to , who is just 17 years old, as they look to strengthen their youth academy.

The 6ft 2in defender has already made and is a Netherlands Under-19 international.

But, just how good is van den Berg?

And, how good can he become?

We used Football Manager to find out.

Sepp van den Berg - PEC Swolle

Current ability: 97/200

Potential ability: -75 (150/200)

Positions: CB/CDM

Best attributes: Natural fitness (16), teamwork (14), tackling (13), marking (13) , work rate (13), balance (13), heading (12), stamina (12), jumping reach (12), bravery (12), composure (12), passing (11), vision (11).

(Football Manager 2019)

Considering just how young Sepp van den Berg is, he doesn't even turn 18 until December 2019, his attributes on Football Manager 2019 suggests that he is already an adept central defender.

His core defensive attributes are very decent for his age, with high ratings for tackling, marking, balance, heading, jumping, composure and bravery.

The 17-year-old also has decent technical ability, with promising passing, vision, technique and first touch attributes, which suggests that he could develop into a great ball-playing defender.

He's not particularly quick or strong, with ratings of only 11 for acceleration, 10 for pace and 8 for strength, but these could all improve as the youngster develops.

Van den Berg has a current ability rating of 97 out of 200 on Football Manager 2019, which is some way off the level of a Liverpool first team player, for example Joel Matip has a current ability of 148 out of 200.

However, the Dutch youngster's potential ability is set at -75, this means he could reach a current ability of 150 out of 200. To put this into context, this rating suggests that he could become better than Joel Matip (148) and Joe Gomez (149) in the future, which indicates just how exciting a talent he is.

Football Manager 2019 suggests that Liverpool are getting a very promising young defender, who has exciting potential.

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