A-Z Sports Liverpool's centre-back situation and why Iraola must act Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Joe Gomez was forced off injured in Liverpool's…
Published
Source: BBC News
**A-Z Sports**
# Liverpool's centre-back situation and why Iraola must act
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Joe Gomez was forced off injured in Liverpool's first game under Andoni Iraola
Football reporter in New York City
* Published 2 hours ago
**Two centre-backs caught the eye of**[**Liverpool**](https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/teams/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](https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool)'s director 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](https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool)'s opening pre-season fixture.
With Joe Gomez forced off by injury in the eighth minute against [Sunderland](https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/teams/sunderland), and neither Jeremy Jacquet or Giovanni Leoni fit to play still, [Liverpool](https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool) have a problem at the heart of their defence.