Liverpool 4-2 Sunderland: Andoni Iraola already facing injury crisis after first pre-season friendly.
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. Andoni Iraola said the injury to Joe Gomez was the “worst news” after he began his Liverpool reign with a 4-2 win over Sunderland in Nashville.
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. The long-serving defender appeared to suffer a muscle issue and was replaced in the centre of defence by youngster Ifeanyi Ndukwe just 10 minutes into the club's first preseason game of their summer tour of the US. Gomez, 29, has a long history of injuries at Anfield, although Iraola will hope it is nothing too serious with Ibrahima Konate having left on a free transfer at the end of last season, while both Giovanni Leoni and Jeremy Jacquet missed the game in Nashville also with injury. "I think it was different halves. 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 Basque, like his opposite number Regis Le Bris, rung the changes after the first half, with Liverpool improving after the break to turn around a 2-1 deficit thanks to a characteristic Dominik Szoboszlai piledriver, followed by further strikes from fellow substitutes Federico Chiesa and Lewis Koumas. For the 24,897 fans inside, who were primarily following Liverpool, it provided great joy to see fan favourite Chiesa make it 3-2, with a brilliant finish after a good ball from Calvin Ramsay, before Koumas capped off an impressive display with a goal to wrap up the game.