'Worst news' for Iraola as Gomez injured in pre-season opener
'Worst news' for Iraola as Gomez injured in pre-season opener
Aadam Patel - Liverpool reporterSun, July 26, 2026 at 8:02 AM UTC
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Liverpool started life under Andoni Iraola with a 4-2 win over Sunderland thanks to goals from Kieran Morrison, Dominik Szoboszlai, Federico Chiesa and Lewis Koumas.
But the Iraola era had initially got off to the worst possible start when Joe Gomez, who started the game as centre-back and captain, went down injured and was taken off in the eighth minute.
"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, who was also without new signing Jeremy Jacquet - who plays centre-half - for the opening friendly of Liverpool's tour of the USA.
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"With Jeremy we decided to take it easy with him. He's had a lot of months without playing and he's been training very well but we're going to take it easy with him," Iraola added. "He will play probably in the last game of this tour and he will have time to have minutes."
With Virgil van Dijk given extra time off following the Netherlands' World Cup campaign, it meant that two teenage centre-backs held the line until the 68th minute.
Mor Talla N'diaye, 18, and Ifeanyi Ndukwe, 18, made their debuts and both performed admirably given the situation but neither can be expected to feature regularly yet. Meanwhile, Giovanni Leoni, 19, is still undergoing individual training as he works his way back from a severe ACL tear.
Iraola said earlier in the week that his squad was "very thin" defensively. Liverpool's sporting director, Richard Hughes, was in Nashville for the game and if he wasn't aware already, seeing Gomez trudge off must have underlined how they are desperately short when it comes to experience in the centre-back department.
Source: “AOL Sports”
