Cody Gakpo Shines in Liverpool Win Over Ipswich

Andoni Iraola never flinched. Not when the rumours swirled all summer, not when Manchester City circled with £85m on the table, and not when Cody Gakpo walked out at Portman Road on Friday night with questions still hanging over his Liverpool future.

By full-time, those questions had their answer.

Gakpo produced a sharp, intelligent display in Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Ipswich Town, laying on both goals for Alexander Isak inside a blistering opening nine minutes and then finishing the game as the central striker to help shut it down. For Iraola, this was exactly what he expected.

“I had no doubt with Cody,” the Liverpool head coach told reporters after the game. “He has been very, very good. All pre-season, [and] has started very well this season, producing numbers.”

All summer, the narrative around Gakpo lived away from the pitch. The Netherlands international was heavily linked with a move away from Anfield, with suggestions he was open to exploring Tottenham before eventually favouring a switch to Manchester City. City, for their part, were prepared to pay big. The £85m offer underlined how highly they rated him.

Liverpool stalled. Not because they didn’t have a price, but because they didn’t have a replacement. As the deadline crept closer and the market tightened, the club chose certainty over upheaval. On this evidence, that call already looks significant.

Gakpo has been one of Liverpool’s standout performers through pre-season and into the opening week of the campaign, and Iraola is leaning into his versatility as much as his form.

“Today, even after the two assists, he finishes as the No. 9 to help us close the game,” Iraola said. “It’s good to have Cody because he can play in the three positions up top, like all of our other players. To have him in this place for the beginning of the season is good.”

That flexibility matters more than ever in a forward line suddenly stacked with options and egos. Liverpool spent £123m on Bradley Barcola in the summer, while Rio and Victor add further depth in the attacking roles. Iraola made it clear that nobody, not even a match-winner, is guaranteed anything.

“I think Cody knows how much we value him. I think there is no doubt. I rate him very highly,” he said. “I will demand [a lot] of him, obviously. He has also strong competition for minutes because we have good players in those positions, and it’s a matter of pushing each other.

“Now with Bradley, with Rio, with Victor, it’s a matter of sometimes they will start, sometimes they will come from the bench, sometimes they will not play. But this competition, I think, is going to be good for our team.”

Barcola’s first steps

While Gakpo stole the headlines, this was also the first real glimpse of Barcola in a Liverpool shirt. The Frenchman arrived as a marquee signing but had not played a single minute since the World Cup, and Iraola moved cautiously, limiting him to a 30-minute cameo.

“I think Bradley hadn’t played a single minute since the World Cup so we needed to be careful,” Iraola explained. “I think he is training well, in a good place, and I think that he has helped us.”

Barcola’s introduction added a different kind of menace. He drifted into pockets, ran at defenders, and twice seemed on the verge of breaking Ipswich open, only for the final pass or finish to go missing.

“Probably, we haven’t found him in a couple of situations where I think he was going against the ‘keeper, but we haven’t really seen his movements,” Iraola said. “And also he has had a very good counter, very good passing side that I think Cody finished, but we didn’t score. But he was always a threat, you know?

“When he carries the ball, I think you can feel this threat and I’m happy because I think 30 minutes is going to be good for his fitness, for his build-up, and we will continue because now we play a lot of games, so he will have a chance to play more.”

The message to the fanbase was clear: excitement is fine, impatience is not.

“I think it’s normal, he hasn’t played any pre-season minutes,” Iraola added. “I think he’s still in a good place. I don’t think he will need something like a very special build-up, but we have to be aware that he hasn’t been playing in a while and the demands of the games are very different from training, so we have got to consider this.”

For now, Gakpo holds the stage. He is the forward Liverpool refused to cash in on, the player City were ready to build around, and the attacker Iraola trusts to move across the front line and still deliver.

If this is how he responds to a summer of speculation, the real question is not whether Liverpool were right to keep him. It’s how far he can drag them this season.