Andoni Iraola made a winning start to his Liverpool career with a 4-2 defeat of Sunderland on Saturday night, but the occasion was marred as Joe Gomez hobbled off injured.
Gomez is the longest-serving player in this Liverpool squad but has struggled for consistent fitness for quite some time. He was forever in-and-out of the side under Arne Slot, and the Iraola era has got started in much the same way.
He went down hurt with just seven minutes played before limping off having received treatment on the pitch. He was replaced by 18-year-old Ifeanyi Ndukwe.
Gomez’s injury is a considerable early setback for Liverpool, whose centre-back options are thin on the ground. Jeremy Jacquet has joined up from Rennes but was not deemed match fit, having spent several months sidelined with a shoulder injury. The pair join fellow centre-back Giovanni Leoni in the treatment room as he continues his recovery from an ACL rupture.
That leaves Virgil van Dijk, who is yet to report for pre-season, as Iraola’s only fit senior centre-back. The burgeoning injury crisis may well force Liverpool back into the transfer market, with free agent John Stones perhaps a tempting option.
“Probably the worst news has been straight away the injury of Joe [Gomez],” said Iraola post-match.
“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.
“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. 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.”
There were some positives for Iraola to take from the match, though, as Liverpool put four past Regis Le Bris’ Sunderland. Dominik Szoboszlai, who signed a new five-year deal this week, was on the scoresheet alongside Kieran Morrison, Federico Chiesa and Lewis Koumas. Timur Tutierov and an Enzo Le Fee screamer were the Sunderland contributions in Nashville.
“It was difficult to put rhythm into the game,” Iraola continued. “I think both teams were lacking some freshness and it was also humid. The pitch was quite slow.
“We had some good spells on the ball. I think we lacked a little bit of intensity. You can feel the timing is still not there. We have to work a lot more but it's a starting point.
“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.”
