This article is part of Football FanCast's In The Pipeline series, which takes a look at some of the most promising young talent either linked with clubs or emerging from their academies...

Centre-back is somewhat of an open position at the moment at Liverpool.

Virgil van Dijk, of course, has one of the two spots nailed down, but the place alongside him is up for grabs. So far this campaign, Joel Matip, Dejan Lovren and Joe Gomez have all lined up there, with the former leading the way in terms of starts with 11 in all competitions.

However, there may be another man who could make that position his own in the future, and his name is Sepp van den Berg.

The 17-year-old joined Liverpool from PEC Zwolle during the summer for a fee of £1.3m after making waves in the Eredivisie. The defender made his debut for the club aged just 16, and made 21 appearances in the competition before making the switch to Anfield. He actually made history, breaking Clarence Seedorf's record to become the youngest player in the Dutch top tier to play 10 matches.

In terms of his physical attributes, he has everything needed to succeed in English football. He stands at 6 foot 2 and also has plenty of pace in his locker. This is something that plenty of Dutch journalists picked up on during his very first matches, and it is something he has displayed in his two appearances for the Reds' first team to date.

He is also comfortable on the ball. Last season, he has an average pass accuracy of 88.4%. In the Liverpool squad, only Virgil van Dijk and Georginio Wijnaldum - ironically, both are from the Netherlands as well - had a better ratio. Not only that, he has three goals in nine appearances for the Oranje's U19 team - although that shouldn't be too much of a surprise considering he used to be a winger.

He has some big fans, as well. Matthijs de Ligt won the Golden Boy award in 2018, and is one of the latest young stars from a conveyor belt of talent to come out of the Ajax academy. Now playing for Juventus, he said of his compatriot: "I don't want to unnecessarily saddle Sepp with things that may bother him. But I think he's a good player and a great talent."

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The 20-year-old certainly knows what it takes to be a good defender, so van den Berg should be delighted with such praise. Clearly, Liverpool also think a lot of him as well: they are already said to preparing a new contract for the starlet.

This is a fantastic indication that they have big plans for him, and so they should. With Van Dijk already setting the world alight - he recently finished second in the Ballon d'Or rankings - the teenager could develop even further under the perfect mentor.

In other news, Liverpool £20m sale may have been one of Jurgen Klopp's few mistakes.