Alexander Isak Ignites Liverpool Career with Brace Against Ipswich

Three minutes. That was all Alexander Isak needed to rip the night away from Ipswich and, perhaps, to finally ignite his Liverpool career.

Under the Portman Road floodlights, with all eyes supposedly on Bradley Barcola and his long-awaited Premier League bow, it was the £125m striker from Newcastle who seized the stage. Two goals in three first-half minutes, his first brace for the club, his fifth and sixth league strikes since that record-equalling move. At last, a performance to match the price tag.

Andoni Iraola’s first Premier League win as Liverpool manager came with a calmness on the scoreboard that did not always exist in the build-up to this game. The Spaniard arrived in the dugout under pressure after a messy opening fortnight. He left Suffolk with a 2-0 victory, a clean sheet, and his No 9 looking like a No 9 again.

Isak explodes, Gakpo conducts

For all the attention on Barcola, this was Cody Gakpo’s game to orchestrate. Again.

A goal on the opening weekend against Newcastle. An assist at Nottingham Forest. Here, two passes of the highest quality ripped Ipswich apart and delivered Isak’s brace. In a squad overloaded with attacking talent, the Dutchman is quietly, relentlessly making himself undroppable.

The first goal, on six minutes, was simple only in appearance. Gakpo slipped a perfectly weighted ball between flat-footed blue shirts, Isak darted in behind and drilled low at the near post. Kjell Scherpen should have done better; the shot crept under him. Liverpool did not care. Neither did Iraola, who has been waiting for this version of Isak.

Barely had Ipswich reset when they were carved open again. Gakpo this time bent an outside-of-the-boot pass into the Swede’s path. One chop, then another, defenders on skates, and a cool left-foot finish past the exposed Iversen. “Isak again ole ole,” came the roar from the away end as Iraola spun away on the touchline, fists clenched.

The Liverpool manager’s verdict afterwards was clear. If Isak is fit, available, in rhythm, he will “produce the numbers”. On this evidence, the numbers may finally be about to flow.

Gakpo stays, and thrives

That this is happening a week after an £80m move to Manchester City looked possible only sharpens the focus on Gakpo. He played off the left here, then finished the night as a central striker, and in both roles he dictated Liverpool’s attacking tempo.

Iraola made a point of praising his aggression on the ball. No hesitation. No sideways security. Just quick, vertical decisions that ripped through Ipswich’s structure.

“When we recover the ball, look forward,” Iraola said. “If we play ‘safety passes’, the chance won’t be there.” It was a thinly veiled challenge to the rest of his creative cast – Florian Wirtz included – to match Gakpo’s risk-taking.

That cast is growing. Barcola has been signed to own the left flank. Victor Munoz impressed again on the right. Rio Ngumoha waits in the wings. Somewhere in that crowded room, Iraola must find space for Gakpo, who is currently the one attacker Liverpool cannot afford to shift out of rhythm.

Ipswich’s streak snapped

On the other side, Ipswich unravelled. Gary O’Neil’s team came into the night with an 18-game unbeaten home league run and a sense of momentum after an opening-day win over Sunderland and a brave 40 minutes at Old Trafford.

They left with both streak and confidence punctured.

Liverpool’s press suffocated them early on. When Ipswich did break through Iraola’s aggressive high line, they found space but lacked conviction. Abdul Fatawu repeatedly had the beating of Milos Kerkez yet wasted his sights of goal. Julio Enciso flashed dangerous balls across the box, one of which Ronald Araujo did superbly to clear with a tap-in looming.

Defensively, though, Ipswich were too open. The back four received little protection from midfield, where the double surge of Dominik Szoboszlai and Wirtz kept crashing into the same inviting pockets. Both midfielders had multiple efforts on goal, both left frustrated that they did not add their names to the scoresheet.

For O’Neil, this will be one to park quickly. The atmosphere was raucous, the occasion big, but his side were second best in both boxes.

Iraola’s new pieces

If there was a surprise in Iraola’s team sheet, it came at right-back. Ronald Araujo, on loan from Barcelona, started ahead of the under-fire Jeremie Frimpong and delivered a solid, combative display. Barcola, lacking minutes after missing PSG’s pre-season due to France’s World Cup run, watched the first hour from the bench.

He did not watch quietly.

Isak, chasing a first Liverpool hat-trick, was withdrawn on 63 minutes to a mixture of confusion and applause from the away end. The confusion lasted seconds. Barcola stepped over the white line and the noise surged.

The early signs were exactly what Liverpool had paid for: sharp turns, explosive acceleration, feet too quick for his marker. He did not score, he did not assist, but he looked like a problem waiting to happen for right-backs across the league.

Behind him, Alexis MacAllister should have killed the contest with a free header straight at Iversen. Szoboszlai briefly thought he had a penalty when tugged by Leif Davis, only for VAR to rule him offside in the build-up. Those misses never came back to haunt Liverpool. Ipswich’s threat faded as the second half wore on and Iraola’s side tightened their grip.

Echoes of Slot, and a warning

Two years ago, Arne Slot began his Liverpool reign with a 2-0 win at this same ground. That day quietly lit the fuse on a title charge that ended with only the club’s second league crown in 35 years.

Nobody inside Portman Road on Friday night is seriously proclaiming this the start of another title run. Slot’s side opened that season with 11 wins from 13. Iraola is still patching together his first coherent performances after two chaotic games.

But Liverpool had only once gone seven Premier League matches without a win, 24 years ago. That unwanted echo was looming. It has been pushed back, at least for now.

This was not perfect. Isak strayed needlessly offside when a first Liverpool hat-trick beckoned from a Wirtz cross. The margin at half-time should have been greater. Yet the essentials were in place: a dominant display, a first league victory for a new manager, a defence that held firm, and a marquee striker finally in the goals.

Iraola’s future on Merseyside will be judged on how well he can knit together the club’s high-priced attacking jigsaw – Isak, Barcola, Wirtz, Gakpo, Munoz, Ngumoha – into something ruthless and reliable.

On a sharp East Anglian night, with three minutes of fury from his centre-forward and a cameo of pure promise from his record signing, he might just have seen the first glimpse of what that finished picture could look like.