Photo: Klopp calls up 'incredible' 20-year-old to Liverpool training ahead of PL opener

By Giuseppe Labellarte

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has been putting his players through a tough pre-season ahead of a huge Premier League campaign.

The Reds took on the likes of Manchester United and RB Leipzig in pre-season, as well as taking on Manchester City in the Community Shield.

And the day after the victory over Pep Guardiola’s side, Liverpool still squeezed in another friendly, against Strasbourg.

Jurgen Klopp will no doubt be pleased with how preparations have gone ahead of another campaign in pursuit of silverware.

Last season, Liverpool were in contention for an unprecedented quadruple right until the end.

In the end, they lifted the Carabao Cup and FA Cup, falling just short in the Premier League and Champions League.

Now, the Reds are looking strong as ever, and have bolstered their ranks with the likes of Darwin Nunez and Fabio Carvalho.

And though Sadio Mane left, Mohamed Salah extended his Liverpool contract, much to the delight of the Anfield faithful.

First up for the Reds is a trip to newly-promoted Fulham, whose last Premier League victory was against Klopp’s side.

On Thursday, the Liverpool media team shared pictures from their latest training session at Kirkby.

And amid the regular first-teamers, Sepp van den Berg was also involved ahead of Saturday’s trip to London.

“Hope to become even better than Virgil van Dijk”

The Dutchman is back at Liverpool having spent 18 months on loan at Preston.

Van den Berg was also part of the pre-season touring squad on recommendation from Pep Lijnders.

To date, the “incredible” 20-year-old has made just four competitive first-team appearances for Liverpool.

And he could potentially head out on loan again amid reported interest from the likes of Bournemouth.

Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip are all ahead of him in the pecking order for now.

Nonetheless, Van den Berg seems to still be in Klopp’s thoughts.

Earlier this year, he expressed his desire to “become even better than Virgil van Dijk”.

And while he may have a long road ahead, he’s certainly on the right track.