Gomez injury mars Liverpool's winning start under Iraola
Joe Gomez's early injury overshadowed Liverpool's 4-2 pre-season friendly win over Sunderland, with teenage centre-backs forced into action.
Liverpool began life under new head coach Andoni Iraola with a 4-2 victory over Sunderland, thanks to goals from Kieran Morrison, Dominik Szoboszlai, Federico Chiesa, and Lewis Koumas. However, the Iraola era started on a sour note as Joe Gomez, starting as centre-back and captain, went down injured in the eighth minute and was substituted.
"Probably the worst news has been straight away the injury of Joe. We were happy because we were going through training without losing any players and unluckily for us we've lost Joe straight away," said Iraola. The coach was also without new signing Jeremy Jacquet, a centre-half, who is being eased in after a long layoff. With Virgil van Dijk given extra rest, two 18-year-old centre-backs—Mor Talla N'diaye and Ifeanyi Ndukwe—made their debuts and held the line until the 68th minute, though neither is expected to feature regularly yet.
Iraola had earlier noted his squad was "very thin" defensively. Sporting director Richard Hughes was in attendance, and seeing Gomez hobble off underlined the lack of experienced centre-back options.
Szoboszlai, donning the armband after half-time, scored a spectacular equaliser from outside the box. Harvey Elliott's assist for Morrison's opener and Morrison's impressive performance were positives. Chiesa and Koumas sealed the win in front of 24,897 fans. Iraola acknowledged the team still has much to improve. Liverpool's next friendly is against Wrexham in New York on Thursday.
