Liverpool beat Sunderland 4-2 in Andoni Iraola's first match in charge, but the night changed early. Joe Gomez went down injured in the 8th minute and was taken off shortly after starting as centre-back and captain. Iraola did not hide his view of the bigger issue, saying: "Probably the worst news has been straight away the injury of Joe." He also added, "We still have a lot of things to improve."

Gomez's early exit and the makeshift back line

The injury left Liverpool with a centre-back pairing of Mor Talla N'diaye and Ifeanyi Ndukwe, both 18, and that is where the practical concern sits. Gomez had been involved in five recent league appearances and only 127 minutes across those games, so this was not a player who had been piling up heavy loads. His 6.36 average rating across that stretch was steady enough, but the early withdrawal still raises a fitness question for a squad that finished fifth on 60 points.

Sunderland were not there simply to make up the numbers either. They had finished seventh, and Liverpool had to recover after trailing 2-1 before Dominik Szoboszlai levelled it at 2-2 with a volley. Kieran Morrison also scored after 13 minutes in a move that involved McConnell, Ngumoha and Elliott, which at least gave the debut a few cleaner football moments amid the disruption.

Iraola's first message to the squad

The result will go into the record as a Liverpool win, but Iraola's first public message was about standards and availability, not celebration. The job clearly is not to be carried away by a friendly scoreline, especially when the opening 8 minutes have already taken Joe Gomez out of the game.

That is why the early tone of this reign feels cautious. Liverpool got the 4-2 result, the young centre-backs were thrown in, and Sunderland offered enough resistance to make it a real test. But the headline from the night was the injury, then the head coach's blunt warning that there is still plenty to improve before anyone reads too much into a first win.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 3 outlets. How we work →