Liverpool claimed a 4-2 pre-season victory over fellow Premier League side Sunderland on Saturday in Andoni Iraola’s first game in charge, but it came at a cost after defender Joe Gomez sustained an injury.
Gomez, 29, left the pitch inside the opening 10 minutes of the match in Nashville, with goals from Kieran Morrison, Dominik Szoboszlai, Federico Chiesa and Lewis Koumas then earning Liverpool the win.
“A lot of things to correct, obviously, it’s the first day. You could feel the heavy legs, the players have been training,” Iraola said in an interview on the club’s website.
“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.
“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 Spaniard added that centre-back Jeremy Jacquet, whose previous season was cut short by a shoulder injury before his summer move to Liverpool, is likely to feature in their pre-season preparations.
“He has been out for a lot of months without playing with a shoulder injury. So, I think we are going to take it easy with him,” he said.
“He will probably play the last game of this US tour, and he will have time to have minutes.”
Liverpool play pre-season games against Wrexham, Leeds United, AS Monaco and Como, before their first match of the Premier League season away to Newcastle on August 23.
• Meanwhile, Inter Miami, with superstar Lionel Messi still resting after his World Cup exploits, won 1-0 at Montreal on Saturday on Casemiro’s Major League Soccer debut.
Luis Suarez converted a penalty in the 81st minute to secure the victory after Miami’s Mexico international German Berterame was injured in a sickening clash of heads.
Berterame crashed to the turf and lay motionless after Efrain Morales made contact as they jumped for the ball.
Players from both teams immediately signalled for help and, after treatment by medics and a long delay, Berterame was taken from the pitch in an ambulance.
Miami coach Guillermo Hoyos said later that Berterame was “OK and conscious”.
“His family has been informed of everything. We didn’t know what to do - it was a very desperate situation.”
Suarez converted the ensuing penalty and held up Berterame’s jersey to mark the goal.
The Uruguayan former Liverpool and Barcelona forward extended his scoring streak to six goals in his last three matches, taking his total for the season to nine.
Casemiro, who has 91 caps for Brazil and won five Champions League titles with Real Madrid, made his first appearance for Miami since arriving this week from Manchester United.
The 34-year-old controlled the tempo in midfield throughout the match, but both teams struggled with poor finishing.
Messi and his Argentina teammate Rodrigo De Paul both missed a second straight game in the wake of Argentina’s defeat to Spain in the World Cup final last weekend.
MLS officials said Messi would not be required to play in next week’s All-Star game. — Reuters, AFP
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