Alexander Isak Shines in Liverpool's Victory Over Ipswich Town

Alexander Isak walked into Portman Road as the £125m question and walked out looking every inch the answer Liverpool thought they were buying.

Two goals inside nine minutes. Game done, points banked, questions – for now – silenced.

The bare numbers say Liverpool beat newly promoted Ipswich Town 2-0 to claim their first Premier League win of the season and hand Andoni Iraola his first victory since replacing the sacked Arne Slot. The story felt bigger than that.

This was the night Isak finally resembled the ruthless forward Liverpool prised from Newcastle United in an acrimonious deal that broke the British transfer record at the time. The night the most expensive “vanity purchase” in English football started to look like value.

And it all unfolded with Cody Gakpo pulling the strings in behind – the same Gakpo who, but for a collapsed move, could have been preparing for Manchester City’s weekend fixture instead of dictating Liverpool’s.

Isak unleashed, Gakpo in command

Ipswich were brave, as they had been in last week’s 5-0 defeat at Manchester United, but once again looked wide open against elite attacking quality. Liverpool did not need a second invitation.

On six minutes, Gakpo spotted the gap. A clever threaded pass split Leif Davis and Jacob Greaves, and Isak surged between them, exactly where he loves to be – running in behind, face to goal, defenders scrambling. His right-foot drive carried too much power for Kjell Scherpen, though the Ipswich keeper will wince at how he helped it into the net.

Three minutes later came the moment that lit up Iraola’s face.

From inside his own half, Gakpo shaped one of those passes that live in a playmaker’s imagination – outside of the right foot, arcing perfectly into Isak’s stride. The Swede, now in full flow, flicked with his left to glide inside Greaves as Scherpen advanced. One touch with the right sent the keeper the wrong way, another with the left rolled the ball in with icy calm.

From Gakpo’s audacity to Isak’s composure, it was a move of pure clarity. Liverpool were 2-0 up. Ipswich were done.

From lost soul to leading man

What made this so striking was how far removed it felt from Isak’s first season at Anfield.

He arrived out of shape after effectively downing tools to force his way out of Tyneside, then stumbled through a campaign riddled with injuries and doubt. He looked isolated, unhappy, and painfully short of the explosive edge that had made him a star at Newcastle. As Liverpool’s title defence fell apart and Slot’s reign unravelled, Isak became a symbol of the club’s muddled thinking.

The numbers were brutal. Twenty-two games in all competitions, 1,033 minutes, four goals – one every 258 minutes. In the league, 14 appearances, 703 minutes, just three goals at a rate of one every 234 minutes. Hugo Ekitike outshone him. Critics lined up. The price tag loomed over every miss.

This season, the picture is already shifting. He has matched last year’s Premier League goal tally within the opening weeks, but it is not just the finishing. It is the body language, the aggression, the sense that Liverpool have finally worked out how to use him.

Iraola has stripped it back to what made Isak feared in the first place: quick transitions, balls in behind, relentless pressing from the front. The Swede hunted defenders, stretched the game, and looked like he wanted every duel. This was Isak played right – and playing right.

“He’s a massive player for us,” Iraola said afterwards. The Liverpool manager talked less about goals and more about the wider work Isak can do for the team, but he did not hide his satisfaction at seeing his striker complete two full matches and score decisive goals in both.

Isak himself did not sugar-coat the past.

“It was not easy,” he admitted of last season. A long injury, a campaign that never settled, a World Cup he had hoped would reset everything. Now, with a normal pre-season behind him, he spoke about attacking defences, starting games fast, and leaving that first year “kind of behind” him.

At Portman Road, he looked like he meant it. Since the start of the 2024-25 season, his five Premier League goals there are now the joint most by any player at a single away ground, level with Erling Haaland’s tally at Selhurst Park.

Gakpo’s sliding-doors moment

Isak may have taken the headlines, but Gakpo wrote the script.

The Dutchman’s Liverpool career also stalled last term. Form ebbed away, confidence followed, and when Manchester City came calling this summer, he was ready to join Enzo Maresca’s new project at the Etihad.

The move fell apart only because Liverpool failed to land a replacement – deals for Yankuba Minteh from Brighton and Crystal Palace’s Ismaila Sarr never got over the line. Gakpo stayed at Anfield almost by default.

Football loves a twist like that.

Here, he was majestic. Two assists told part of the tale, but his influence ran through the entire performance – drifting into pockets, turning under pressure, dictating tempo. This was the elegant, incisive Netherlands international Liverpool thought they were signing, not the hesitant version of last season.

Virgil van Dijk, his captain for club and country, was clear on his importance. Gakpo, he said, is vital now and will remain so, pointing to his displays here, last week, and across the last couple of years. The message was simple: keep going.

On this evidence, Liverpool will be relieved the paperwork never got done.

Barcola’s blur of pace – and the bigger picture

Even a £123m debut could barely get a look-in.

Bradley Barcola came off the bench for a 26-minute cameo that offered a glimpse of why Liverpool were willing to spend so heavily to bring him from Paris St-Germain. He was raw but electric, his pace instantly stretching a tiring Ipswich defence.

On another night, his introduction would have dominated the conversation. Here, it was a footnote.

Because this was about a forward line that suddenly looked coherent again. About a manager who, in one ruthless away performance, saw his main attacking pieces click into place. About a club that had spent huge money on Isak and Barcola, nearly lost Gakpo, and now might just see that chaotic summer pay off.

Ipswich, for all their spirit, were outgunned. They have conceded seven goals in two league games, five at Old Trafford and two here, and while they will not face this level of attacking quality every week, they look worryingly open against sides who can run and combine at pace.

Liverpool will not care. Not tonight.

For Iraola, the challenge is clear. This cannot be a one-off, another false dawn for a striker of exceptional talent who lost his way. If this is the real Alexander Isak, if this is the real Cody Gakpo, then Liverpool’s season suddenly looks a lot more dangerous for everyone else.