Iraola begins Liverpool reign with pre-season win over Sunderland

Andoni Iraola began his tenure as Liverpool manager with a 4-2 pre-season win against fellow Premier League side Sunderland. However, the victory was overshadowed by an early injury to defender Joe Gomez, who left the pitch within the first 10 minutes.

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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.

Goals from Kieran Morrison, Dominik Szoboszlai, Federico Chiesa, and Lewis Koumas secured the win for Liverpool. Despite the positive result, Iraola acknowledged the team's fatigue from intense training. "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.

"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 added. The manager expressed concern over losing Gomez, especially after managing to get through training without prior injuries.

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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, Iraola mentioned that center-back Jeremy Jacquet, who has been recovering from a shoulder injury, will be managed carefully. Jacquet is expected to play in the final game of the U.S. tour to regain match fitness. Liverpool's pre-season schedule includes matches against Wrexham, Leeds United, AS Monaco, and Como, before their Premier League season opener against Newcastle on August 23.

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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. He will play probably the last game of this U.S. tour and he will have time to have minutes.