Van den Berg offers surprising outlet for Preston

Standing at 6’2′, Sepp van den Berg would not strike you as the typical modern day full back.

When you look at the top end of the Premier League you see Joao Cancelo, Kyle Walker and Luke Shaw among others. Smaller technical players with the pace to rampage up and down the wing.

Of course, van den Berg is a centre back by trade and it would be unfair to expect him to thrive as a right back but that is what he is doing right now under Alex Neil at Preston.

The Dutchman joined the Lilywhites on loan from Liverpool at the end of the January transfer window as part of the deal that saw Ben Davies head in the opposite direction to Anfield.

Van den Berg has 21 Eredivisie appearances to his name with most of these coming as a 17-year-old. This made clubs around Europe take notice and Liverpool pounced to snap up the youngster in the summer following the Champions League triumph.

The 19-year-old has spent the next season and a half making cup appearances here and there while becoming a mainstay in the club’s under 23 side. Clubs and players themselves generally prefer to get a more competitive feel to football at that age so the move to Preston represented a good opportunity.

It’s just 36 miles up the road so the transition for the young defender will have been a bit easier than most loans. After making his debut off the bench against Rotherham, van den Berg has started the previous two games for Neil and it has resulted in back-to-back clean sheets.

This has all come from the right back position, not where Jurgen Klopp or any Liverpool fans would have anticipated seeing him line up. It has worked out a lot better than even Neil himself surely expected.

Against Huddersfield on Saturday, van den Berg had an assured performance and contributed at both ends of the pitch. After getting some nice early touches and passing the ball between defence and midfield to gain some confidence, the rangy defender started getting forward to support the attack.

With Greg Cunningham always looking to attack on the left hand side, it would be easy to imagine Van den Berg coming in as a third centre back and allow his fellow full back the freedom to do so. But it was Van den Berg himself who was bombing on in the early stages and showing terrific pace to get up and down the line.

Van den Berg is deceptively quick and never really looked like getting caught out that high up the field with his recovery pace a useful weapon. Having been schooled at Liverpool for the past 18 months, it should be no surprise that the former Netherlands under 19 international possesses technical ability with the ball.

This ability wasn’t quite on show in the first half with the passing skills required differing a bit from what he is used to using at centre half. He did show some quality on the ball towards the end of the half after making a terrific interception to stop a counter attack. Van den Berg then released Alan Browne who had made a run into the box.

Speaking of Browne, the Irishman is one who has benefitted from the Dutchman taking to the right back position. It has allowed him to return to his natural midfield role having slotted in at full back in recent weeks following the departure of Darnell Fisher. Browne’s energy is much better utilised in the middle of the park and his quality on the ball helped set Brad Potts away to assist the second goal.

Van den Berg’s defensive ability was also showcased in the second half, particularly when Juninho Bacuna attempted a through ball which would have led to a one on one. Van den Berg did brilliantly to stretch out and hook the ball away for a corner, preserving the clean sheet and denying the Terriers a route back into the match.

The loanee’s height should also prove useful in the coming weeks. He’s comfortable dealing with long balls defensively and makes his way up for set pieces to try and get on the scoresheet. Unfortunately on Saturday the dead ball delivery wasn’t quite up to scratch for Preston and they failed to take advantage of some good positions.

It’ll be interesting to see if Alex Neil keeps Van den Berg at full back but the upturn in performances of the previous two games will surely see him keep the same side at least for the midweek trip to Millwall.

Van den Berg is showing himself to be versatile defensively and Jurgen Klopp will no doubt be impressed. The challenge now is to maintain this run of games and make a big impression in what will hopefully be a proper pre-season. A half season in the Championship will stand him in great stead.

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