Isak Shines in Liverpool's Victory Over Ipswich
Three minutes. That was all it took for Alexander Isak to rip the tension out of Andoni Iraola’s Liverpool reign and turn a nervous away night into a statement.
Under the lights at Portman Road, with all eyes supposedly on Bradley Barcola’s long-awaited bow, it was the £125m striker – not the £125m winger – who finally looked every inch a marquee signing. Two goals in three first-half minutes, his first brace for Liverpool, his fifth and sixth Premier League strikes since arriving from Newcastle, and Iraola’s first league win in the Liverpool dugout wrapped up before the break.
For a player whose Anfield story has stalled and stuttered, this felt like ignition.
Isak explodes, Gakpo conducts
The script had been written for Barcola. The joint-most expensive signing in English football history, a year of waiting, a whole summer of hype. Instead, the night belonged to the man lurking on the shoulder of a shell-shocked Ipswich back line.
Six minutes in, Cody Gakpo slid a perfectly weighted pass through the heart of Gary O’Neil’s defence. Isak darted in, took one touch, and drilled low at the near post. Kjell Scherpen got there, but weak hands turned a saveable effort into a goal he will not enjoy on the replay.
The pressure barely had time to settle before it told again. Gakpo, head up, shaped his body and carved Ipswich open with a gorgeous outside-of-the-boot ball in behind. Isak, suddenly playing with the freedom of a man who has remembered exactly who he is, chopped one way, then the other, and passed the ball past Daniel Iversen with his left foot. Two-nil. Iraola spinning on the touchline. The away end chanting “Isak again ole ole”.
This is what Iraola believes he has. “With Alex, if he is fit, if he is available, if he is in good shape, I think he will produce the numbers,” the Spaniard said afterwards. On this evidence, that faith might finally be rewarded.
Yet even on a night when Isak’s name sat in the headlines, Gakpo’s fingerprints were all over the story.
A goal on opening day against Newcastle. An assist at Nottingham Forest. Here, two defence-splitting passes for Isak’s double and a late shift as a No 9. All this while an £80m move to Manchester City hovered over his week.
Iraola never blinked. “I had no doubt with Cody,” he insisted. “He has been very good all the pre-season, has started the season very well, producing numbers. I think Cody knows how much we value him… I rate him very highly.”
You could see exactly why. Gakpo played with a daring edge, constantly gambling with first-time balls forward when the safer option was available. Iraola wants that risk. He namechecked it, and Florian Wirtz, directly.
“When we recover the ball, look forward,” he said. “It’s the moment you can find some spaces between the defenders and we can give the No 9 chances. If we play ‘safety passes’, the chance won’t be there.”
On this night, it was the difference between control and cruise.
Echoes of Slot, and a line in the sand
Liverpool know this ground. Two years ago, Arne Slot walked into Portman Road and walked out with his first win as Liverpool manager, also by a 2-0 scoreline. It turned out to be the first step of a title-winning campaign, only the club’s second league crown in 35 years.
Nobody around Iraola is daring to project that kind of trajectory yet. Slot’s side opened that season with 11 wins from 13. This Liverpool have already stumbled. But after a ragged first fortnight, this felt like a line in the sand: a clean sheet, control, and the club’s leading No 9 finally in the goals.
The question now is whether Iraola can coax similar returns from the other big-money pieces handed to him: Barcola, Wirtz, and the rest of the expensively assembled front line.
Selection calls and a soft Ipswich core
Iraola made bold choices before kick-off. Ronald Araujo, on loan from Barcelona, started at right back ahead of the much-maligned Jeremie Frimpong. Barcola, having missed PSG’s entire pre-season due to France’s World Cup run, was kept on the bench.
He could afford that caution because Ipswich never really got to grips with Liverpool’s movement or aggression.
O’Neil’s side had arrived with confidence. They had beaten Sunderland on the opening weekend and held their own for 40 minutes at Old Trafford. At home, they carried an 18-game unbeaten league run. That record disappeared with a whimper.
The back four were left horribly exposed by a yawning gap in front of them, usually patrolled by the double surge of Dominik Szoboszlai and Wirtz. Both midfielders repeatedly burst through the lines, both took aim from the edge of the box, and both walked off irritated they had not joined the scorers.
Ipswich’s defending veered towards chaos. Panic on the ball, panic off it. When they did break Iraola’s ferocious high press, there were flickers of life. Abdul Fatawu repeatedly beat Milos Kerkez down the right but wasted promising openings with wild finishing. Araujo had to hack clear from under his own crossbar when a tap-in seemed inevitable from a Julio Enciso cross.
Those were moments, not a threat. The home crowd stayed loud, but the belief seeped away.
Missed chances and a debut teased
If there was a criticism of Liverpool’s front line, it was their failure to kill the game before half-time. Szoboszlai let fly more than once, only for Iversen to stand firm. Isak strayed lazily offside when Wirtz whipped in a cross that begged to be headed home for a first Liverpool hat-trick.
After the break, Liverpool simply tightened their grip. Alexis MacAllister should have buried a free header straight at Iversen. Szoboszlai briefly thought he had a penalty when Leif Davis tugged his shirt, only for VAR to rule him offside in the build-up.
Then came the moment the away end had waited 12 months for.
On 63 minutes, Iraola hooked Isak – no hat-trick, no chance to chase it – and sent on Barcola. The decision drew a murmur, then a roar as the Frenchman sprinted onto the pitch in Merseyside red at last.
The first impression? Electric.
Barcola dropped a shoulder and span away from his marker with ease. He showed sharp feet in tight spaces, then burned into the channel with a burst of pace that instantly looked Premier League-ready. There was no end product yet, no goal or assist, but that will not worry Iraola. The raw tools were obvious. Right-backs across the division will have taken note.
A crowded front line and a clear demand
If anything, Barcola’s cameo sharpened Iraola’s biggest tactical headache. How does he fit everyone in?
Gakpo has been devastating from the left. Barcola has been signed to play there. Victor Munoz impressed again on the right. Rio Ngumoha is pushing hard. Behind them, Szoboszlai and Wirtz keep charging into the box like auxiliary forwards.
It is a luxury problem, but a real one. Something has to give, somewhere.
What will not change is Iraola’s demand for risk. He wants his creators to play forward, not sideways. He wants his forwards to live on the edge of the offside line. He wants his team to suffocate opponents with the press and then strike before they can breathe.
At Portman Road, it worked.
Liverpool had gone six Premier League matches without a win heading into the night. Only once in their history have they stretched that drought to seven, 24 years ago. There was no danger of that unwanted echo here.
A comfortable victory, a first league win for Iraola, a clean sheet, and his record signing at centre-forward finally smiling again. For a manager charged with making sense of a squad built on high-priced bets, this away day in East Anglia might not just be a pleasant evening.
It might be the spark that decides whether those bets pay out.
