Gomez injury mars start of Iraola era at Liverpool

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Andoni Iraola said Joe Gomez’s injury in Liverpool’s friendly win against Sunderland was the “worst news” at the start of his reign.

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Iraola was taking charge of his first match since arriving from Bournemouth in the close season to replace the sacked Arne Slot.

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The Spaniard watched as goals from Kieran Morrison, Dominik Szoboszlai, Federico Chiesa and Lewis Koumas gave Liverpool a 4-2 victory on Saturday in the opener of their United States tour in Nashville.

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But Gomez, who started the game as centre-back and captained Liverpool, was forced off in the eighth minute.

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Gomez’s premature exit added to Iraola’s defensive issues, with new signing Jeremy Jacquet still being eased back after his own fitness problems and Giovanni Leoni recovering following a long-term absence.

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Iraola said earlier this week that his squad is “very thin” defensively.

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“Probably the worst news has been straight away the injury of Joe,” Iraola said.

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“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.

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“With Jeremy, we decided to take it easy with him. He has been a lot of months without playing with a shoulder injury.

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“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.”

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Despite the injury woes, Iraola hopes the win will give Liverpool a platform to improve when they meet Wrexham in New York and Leeds in Chicago.

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“A lot of things to correct, obviously, it’s the first day. You could feel the heavy legs, the players have been training,” he said.

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“So, we lacked some freshness. But it will give us a good starting point to improve things.”

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Virgil van Dijk has been given extra time off following the Netherlands’ World Cup campaign.

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But Iraola confirmed that Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz and Ryan Gravenberch are in Chicago after their post-World Cup breaks and will soon rejoin the squad.

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