Liverpool opened their pre-season with a 4-2 win over Sunderland on Saturday in Nashville, but Andoni Iraola’s first game at the helm was overshadowed by an early injury to defender Joe Gomez.
Gomez, 29, was forced off within the first 10 minutes at the match, leaving Liverpool to regroup while Sunderland still posed a threat. The contest then swung in Liverpool’s favour as goals from Kieran Morrison, Dominik Szoboszlai, Federico Chiesa and Lewis Koumas secured the victory.
Iraola said the performance reflected the reality of an early-stage campaign, explaining that the session load was already being felt by his players. “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 in an interview published by the club.
He added that Liverpool lacked a bit of sharpness as a result, but believed the result still offered a useful baseline. “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.”
Iraola also highlighted the contrast between what his squad had managed to do up to that point in training and what happened in the early minutes of the game. “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.”
Looking ahead, the Spaniard suggested that centre-back Jeremy Jacquet should be part of Liverpool’s pre-season work despite concerns from his recent spell on the sidelines. Jacquet’s previous season ended early due to a shoulder injury, though he has since made the summer move to the club.
“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,” Iraola said, before clarifying how the coaching staff plan to manage his minutes. “He will play probably the last game of this U.S. tour and he will have time to have minutes.”
Liverpool’s U.S. tour continues with pre-season matches against Wrexham, Leeds United, AS Monaco and Como. Their attention then turns to the Premier League opener, when they travel to face Newcastle on August 23.
