Alexander Isak shines in Liverpool's victory over Ipswich
Alexander Isak walked into Portman Road on Friday night as the £125m question. He walked out looking every inch like the answer Liverpool thought they were buying.
Two goals in the first nine minutes. A 2-0 win. Andoni Iraola’s first Premier League victory. Liverpool’s first of the season. On paper, it reads like routine business against a newly promoted Ipswich Town who had already shipped five at Manchester United last week.
It was anything but routine for Isak.
Isak, finally
For a year, the Sweden striker had been a riddle Liverpool could not solve. He arrived late, unfit, after forcing his way out of Newcastle United. Then came the injuries, the hesitancy, the body language of a player who looked like the most expensive mistake in British football.
The numbers were brutal. Twenty-two games in all competitions last season, 1,033 minutes, four goals. In the league, 14 appearances, 703 minutes, three goals – one every 234 minutes. Hugo Ekitike outshone him. Liverpool’s title defence collapsed. Arne Slot was gone a year after lifting the trophy. Isak became a symbol of everything that had gone wrong.
Here, he looked like he had been rewired.
This was the Newcastle version: running in behind, pressing with conviction, playing on the shoulder and trusting his speed. Iraola used him as a sprinter, not a target. The change was obvious from the first whistle.
Six minutes in, Cody Gakpo threaded a clever pass between Leif Davis and Jacob Greaves. Isak surged through the gap, thrashed a right-foot shot at goal and, while Ipswich keeper Kjell Scherpen should have done much better than spoon it into his own net, the power and intent were unmistakable.
Three minutes later, Liverpool ripped Ipswich open again. This time it was pure class from back to front.
Gakpo, inside his own half, shaped his body and slid a gorgeous outside-of-the-boot pass into space. Isak, already on the move, used a deft left-foot flick to glide inside Greaves as Scherpen rushed out. One touch with his right sent the keeper the wrong way, the next with his left rolled the ball calmly into the far corner.
From Gakpo’s vision to Isak’s finish, it was perfection. Game gone inside nine minutes.
Gakpo stays, Liverpool profit
The irony hung over the night. Gakpo could easily have been preparing for Manchester City’s game against Coventry City instead of dismantling Ipswich. He was ready to join Enzo Maresca’s City rebuild, but Liverpool’s failure to land Yankuba Minteh from Brighton or Ismaila Sarr from Crystal Palace killed the move.
That collapse now looks like a gift.
Gakpo produced a creative masterclass, not only with the two assists but with the authority of his entire performance. He drifted, linked, dictated tempo. This was the elegant Netherlands forward Liverpool thought they were getting – and the one Virgil van Dijk was desperate to keep.
“It’s massive,” the Liverpool captain said. “He’s important for us, and he will be important this season. He showed it here. He showed it last week as well, and over the last couple of years. He needs to just keep going.”
On this evidence, he will.
Iraola’s blueprint
For Iraola, this was a night where almost everything clicked. Liverpool still had to be judged against the level of opposition – Ipswich were brave but vulnerable, and already look likely to suffer whenever real attacking quality turns up – yet the manner of the win mattered.
Isak was used exactly as his new manager wants. High line. Aggressive press. Space to attack. The Swede responded not only with goals, but with a sharper, more engaged presence.
“He’s a massive player for us,” Iraola said. “My demands will probably not be about the goals. I know he is fit and in good shape. He’s going to produce the numbers. My fight with him will be more about other stuff, how to help the team in other situations – but it is good he has already played two full games, scoring the goals, so I am very happy to have him.”
Isak himself sounded like a man who has finally been able to breathe.
“We were waiting for the first win,” he said. “We talked about starting the game good, which we haven’t done recently, so it was perfect for us to get two good quick goals.
“With a normal pre-season, I think we are starting to get to the way we want to play. To be offensive and attack the defence. I think we did that. We scored two, and we could have scored more.”
Last season’s struggle still lingers in his mind.
“It was not easy,” he admitted. “It was obviously a long injury and a difficult season in general. I was thinking to have a good World Cup, and then to start off the season well, which I think I have done now. It’s kind of behind me, but it wasn’t easy.”
Portman Road certainly brings out his best. Since the start of the 2024-25 season, Isak’s five Premier League goals there are the joint-most by any player at a single away ground in that period, level with Erling Haaland’s tally at Selhurst Park against Crystal Palace.
Barcola’s glimpse, Isak’s stage
Even a £123m debut could not steal the spotlight. Bradley Barcola’s 26-minute cameo from the bench showed exactly why Liverpool paid Paris St-Germain so heavily for him – bursts of devastating pace, direct running, the sense that one acceleration can rip a game apart.
Yet the night still belonged to Isak.
He had been poor on the opening day back at Tyneside. Even his goal in the 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest drew questions about his overall display. Here, the doubts eased. This was Isak played right – and playing right.
Gakpo, reborn. Isak, reawakened. Iraola, off the mark.
Liverpool have seen false dawns before, and Iraola will know one good night in Suffolk does not rewrite a season. But if this is the version of Alexander Isak they have finally unlocked, the question now is not what he cost.
It’s how far he can take them.
