Liverpool's centre-back situation and why Iraola must act

Liverpool's centre-back situation and why Iraola must actImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Joe Gomez was forced off injured in Liverpool's first game under Andoni IraolaByAadam PatelFootball reporter in New York CityPublished3 minutes agoCommentsTwo centre-backs caught the eye of Liverpool's scouting department at the U17 World Cup in Qatar last November.Within weeks, the club spent a combined £3.5m on the pair: Senegal's Mor Talla Ndiaye and Austria's Ifeanyi Ndukwe.Under Matt Newberry, Liverpool's head of global talent, this was evidence of future planning in full flow.Yet surely no-one inside the club would have expected the teenage duo to be the centre-back pairing for most of Liverpool's opening pre-season fixture.With Joe Gomez forced off by injury in the eighth minute against Sunderland, and neither Jeremy Jacquet or Giovanni Leoni fit to play, Liverpool have a problem at the heart of their defence.Looking at the long term is one thing, but they need reinforcements in the here and now.Even before the injury, new head coach Andoni Iraola said his squad was "very thin" defensively.Gomez was absent from Liverpool's training session in Chicago on Sunday and an update on the severity of his injury is expected this week.He is Liverpool's longest-serving current player but has now missed 225 games because of injury, according to Transfermarkt, since signing from Charlton in 2015.Virgil van Dijk is the club's only fit senior centre-back. The Liverpool captain is 35 and played every minute in the Premier League last season, but he is not the force that he used to be.The Dutchman, like Gomez, is also into the last year of his contract at Anfield. There is a possibility both players will move on next summer.One of the reasons why Liverpool allowed Ibrahima Konate to leave on a free transfer and join Real Madrid was because they felt Jacquet, 21, and Leoni, 19, who cost £55m and £26m respectively, were th...