Joe Gomez injured in Liverpool's pre-season. Photo: Getty Images
Liverpool beat Sunderland 4-2 in their opening game of their US tour as Andoni Iraola’s era begins, but they are left sweating an injury to defender Joe Gomez, in an area of the field the club already felt they were thin and were looking for reinforcements.
Kieran Morrison, Dominik Szoboszlai, Federico Chiesa and Lewis Koumas scored for the Reds in a match with glimpses of the style of play the former Bournemouth boss wants to implement, but Iraola, in his first game since replacing Arne Slot, turned to the substitutes bench at half-time to overturn a 2-1 deficit, with goals from Enzo Le Fee and Timur Tutierov for Sunderland.
Gomez lasted just 10 minutes, replaced by Ifeanyi Ndukwe as the 29-year-old, whose recent seasons have been punctured by injury.
The club have lost Ibrahima Konate on a free transfer, while other defenders Giovanni Leoni and Jeremy Jacquet are injured.
“I think it was different halves,” Iraola said.
“Especially, they were a lot stronger in the first half. We kind of balanced both teams, and you could feel the difference. A lot of things to correct, obviously, it’s the first day.
“You could feel the heavy legs, the players have been training. So, we lacked some freshness.
“But it will give us a good starting point to improve things.
“Probably the worst news has been straight away the injury of Joe [Gomez].
“We were happy because we were kind of going through all the training without losing any player. Unluckily for us, straight away we’ve lost Joe.”
The former is still recovering from an ACL injury but Jacquet is not far off.
“With Jeremy [Jacquet], we decided to take it easy with him. He has been a lot of months without playing with a shoulder injury. So, I think we are going to take it easy with him,” Iraola added.
“He will play probably the last game of this US tour and he will have time to have minutes. It’s true that we were kind of happy but we’ve lost one now.”
Other stars missing, including Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz and Ryan Gravenberch will link with the squad shortly.
Meanwhile, Chiesa, who came off the bench to score the side’s third goal, is hoping Iraola’s arrival is a “fresh start” at Anfield, with the 28-year-old adamant he wants to go no where despite just one Premier League start since joining the Premier League club.
The Italian said: “The only conversations I had were about pressing and tactics.
“So I don’t know, it is difficult to say. It is always a fresh start at the beginning of the year. Maybe there have been too many fresh starts.
“But I don’t care, I am trying to do my best for this new manager. Last season under Arne Slot, I was trying to do my best.
“Right now, at the moment, I am happy here at Liverpool. I love the club, I love the fans, I love everything. I am doing the best I can to have a chance here. And then we will see. At the minute, the only thing I am thinking about is Liverpool.”
Liverpool will face Wrexham, Leeds, Monaco and Como in pre-season, while Sunderland face Leeds, Wrexham, Lens, and Rennes.