Liverpool kicked off the Andoni Iraola era with an entertaining 4-2 pre-season victory over Sunderland in Nashville, but the win was overshadowed by an early injury to Joe Gomez.
Goals from Kieran Morrison, Dominik Szoboszlai, Federico Chiesa and Lewis Koumas secured the Reds' first victory under their new head coach, although Gomez's eighth-minute exit cast a shadow over the result.
The experienced defender, who started as captain alongside teenage centre-backs, limped off with an injury that immediately exposed Liverpool's defensive shortage.
"Probably the worst news has been straight away the injury of Joe," Iraola said after the match.
"We were happy because we were going through training without losing any players and unluckily for us we've lost Joe straight away."
The Spaniard also confirmed that new signing Jeremy Jacquet was rested as Liverpool carefully manage his return to fitness after a lengthy spell out.
"Jeremy has been training very well, but we're going to take it easy with him," Iraola explained.
"He will probably play in the last game of this tour."
With Virgil van Dijk still unavailable following the Netherlands' World Cup campaign and Giovanni Leoni continuing his recovery from a serious ACL injury, Liverpool relied heavily on youngsters Mor Talla Ndiaye and Ifeanyi Ndukwe in central defence.
Both 18-year-olds impressed during their senior debuts, though Iraola has already admitted his squad is "very thin" at the back.
Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes watched from the stands and would have been reminded of the club's need for defensive reinforcements.
On the pitch, however, there were plenty of positives.
Teenager Kieran Morrison opened the scoring with a composed left-footed finish after excellent work from Harvey Elliott, who marked his return to Liverpool following his loan spell at Aston Villa with an assist.
Sunderland fought back through Enzo Le Fee before Timur Tutierov gave the Black Cats the lead, exposing defensive issues that Iraola will need to address.
Szoboszlai restored parity in spectacular fashion shortly after coming on at half-time, rifling a superb strike into the net from outside the area while wearing the captain's armband.
Federico Chiesa then delighted the Liverpool supporters with a clinical finish after Calvin Ramsay's precise pass put the Reds back in front, before Lewis Koumas sealed the victory late on.
One of the standout moments also came from 16-year-old Josh Abe, who made his senior debut and played an important role in the build-up to Koumas' goal, highlighting why he is regarded as one of Liverpool's brightest academy prospects.
Despite the encouraging attacking display, Iraola stressed that the result was secondary to the team's continued development.
"It doesn't matter the result but keep pushing, don't relax and don't get used to playing too comfortably," he said.
"We still have a lot of things to improve."
Liverpool now head back to their training base in Chicago, where Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Ryan Gravenberch have joined the squad ahead of preparations for Thursday's friendly against Wrexham in New York.
