After losing the experienced defender in the first outing, the club must move in the market
Liverpool started to suffer injury concerns right from the start of pre-season after Joe Gomez suffered an early injury during the friendly against Sunderland in Nashville.
The defender lasted only 10 minutes before being forced off, leaving Liverpool to finish the first half with teenage centre-backs Mor Talla Ndiaye and Ifeanyi Ndukwe.
The injury compounds a problem that began for the Reds last season, the shortage of experienced players that new coach Andoni Iraola has already shown his frustration about this summer.
“Probably the worst news has been straight away the injury of Joe,” Iraola said about Gomez’s injury. “We were happy because we were going through training without losing any players and unluckily for us we’ve lost Joe straight away.”
Liverpool travelled to the US without several senior players due to World Cup commitments. Alexis Mac Allister, Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak, Ryan Gravenberch and new signing Victor Munoz are due to join the tour next week.
Virgil van Dijk, Cody Gakpo and Alisson will also return to pre-season training next week, although they will remain in Liverpool.
Summer signing Jeremy Jacquet was also absent in Saturday’s game. The £55m arrival from Rennes was not risked as he continues to build his fitness after being out since January.
“With Jeremy we decided to take it easy with him,” Iraola said. “He’s had a lot of months without playing, he’s been training very well, but we’re going to take it easy with him. He will play probably in the last game of this US tour, he will have time to have minutes.”
Gomez’s withdrawal will increase the focus on Liverpool’s summer business. The Reds have only signed Jacquet and Munoz but more additions are sorely needed, as Iraola, again, pointed out at the start of pre-season.
Ibrahima Konate left for Real Madrid at the end of last season and, even if his form was suspect for a long time, his experience needs replacing. Giovanni Leoni is still recovering from an ACL injury and Jacquet might need time to adjust to the English game.
The club need more signings at the back. If not, it could derail their season once more.
