Alexander Isak shines in Liverpool's 2-0 victory over Ipswich

Alexander Isak walked into Portman Road on Friday as the £125m enigma. He walked out as Liverpool’s centrepiece.

Two ruthless finishes in the first nine minutes, a 2-0 win, three points on the board and Andoni Iraola’s first Premier League victory as Liverpool manager. On paper, routine. In reality, it felt like the night Liverpool finally met the striker they thought they were buying from Newcastle United.

Yes, this was against a newly promoted Ipswich Town who were brave but brittle, a side that conceded five at Manchester United a week earlier and again looked wide open when faced with genuine attacking class. That context matters. But so does the way Isak tore into them.

The £125m problem starts to look like a solution

Last season, Isak looked like a cautionary tale. He arrived at Anfield out of shape after forcing his way out of Tyneside, then limped through a campaign scarred by injuries and doubt. The price tag screamed superstar; the performances whispered vanity signing.

Twenty-two games in all competitions. Just 1,033 minutes. Four goals. In the league, three strikes across 703 minutes – one every 234 minutes. A ghost of the forward who had electrified Newcastle, a symbol of Liverpool’s staggering title defence collapse that ended with Arne Slot sacked a year after lifting the Premier League trophy.

On Friday night, that version of Isak vanished.

This was the Newcastle Isak. The one who lives on the shoulder, sprints in behind, presses with menace. Iraola stopped trying to turn him into something he isn’t and simply unleashed what he is: a devastating runner with a killer’s calm in front of goal.

He has already matched last season’s Premier League tally. The numbers matter, but the body language mattered more. Head up. Constantly on the move. Demanding the ball. A centre-forward who finally looked like he belonged in a Liverpool shirt.

Gakpo stays – and runs the show

If Isak supplied the punches, Cody Gakpo wrote the script.

The Dutchman could easily have been preparing for Manchester City’s game against Coventry City this weekend. He was ready to join Enzo Maresca’s new project at Etihad Stadium, only for the move to collapse when Liverpool failed to land Yankuba Minteh from Brighton or Crystal Palace’s Ismaila Sarr.

So Gakpo stayed. On this evidence, Liverpool should be grateful the dominoes fell that way.

From the first whistle he played like a man with a point to prove. Drifting between the lines, threading passes, dictating tempo. His two moments of incision settled the contest before Ipswich had even found their bearings.

On six minutes, he split Leif Davis and Jacob Greaves with a sharp pass that invited Isak to attack the space. Isak surged through and hammered a right-foot shot that carried too much power for Kjell Scherpen, though the Ipswich goalkeeper will wince at how he helped the ball into his own net.

Three minutes later, Gakpo produced something exquisite. From inside his own half, he bent an outside-of-the-boot pass that curved perfectly into Isak’s path. One flick with the left to glide inside Greaves as Scherpen rushed out, a feint with the right to send the keeper the wrong way, then a rolled left-foot finish into the empty net.

From Gakpo’s audacity to Isak’s ice-cold execution, it was a goal that summed up everything Iraola wants this Liverpool side to be. Slick. Vertical. Relentless.

Game over after nine minutes. Ipswich never recovered.

Iraola’s blueprint – and Isak’s reset

Isak had stumbled through a wretched return to Tyneside on the opening day and even his goal in the 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest drew scrutiny. Was this really the player Liverpool shattered the British transfer record for?

At Portman Road, the answer looked very different.

Iraola framed it simply afterwards. “He’s a massive player for us,” the Liverpool manager said. The goals, he insisted, would come now that Isak is fit and sharp. The real battle will be about what he does when he is not finishing chances – the pressing, the link play, the work that knits a team together.

For Isak, this felt like a personal reset. “We were waiting for the first win,” he admitted. Liverpool had spoken about starting fast, something they had failed to do in recent weeks. Two quick goals, job done. A normal pre-season, a clear idea of how Iraola wants them to attack, and suddenly the picture looks brighter.

He did not dodge the past either. Last season, he said, “was not easy”. A long injury lay-off, a troubled campaign, a plan to use the World Cup as a springboard that never quite materialised. Now, he believes he has finally started the season in the way he had imagined back then.

Portman Road certainly suits him. Since the start of the 2024-25 season, his five Premier League goals at the ground are the joint most by any player at a single away venue, level with Erling Haaland’s tally at Selhurst Park against Crystal Palace.

Barcola’s glimpse and Van Dijk’s relief

Amid the noise around Isak and Gakpo, Bradley Barcola’s debut could easily be overlooked. It shouldn’t be.

The £123m signing from Paris St-Germain was given 26 minutes and used them to flash the kind of raw pace that terrifies defenders. It was only a glimpse, but it hinted at another dimension to Iraola’s attack. On a different night, he might have stolen the headlines. Here, he had to settle for a supporting role in someone else’s story.

Gakpo’s resurgence will not have gone unnoticed in the dressing room. Virgil van Dijk, captain for club and country, made it clear how relieved he is that the forward stayed put. Gakpo, he said, is important now and will be important across the season. Performances like this back that up.

Last season, Gakpo also drifted below his best. This season, he has started like a man determined to erase that memory. Two assists at Ipswich only told part of the tale; his all-round elegance and control underlined why Liverpool were so reluctant to let him go.

A false dawn, or the night everything changed?

Strip away the romance and this was a straightforward win against a side still adjusting to Premier League life. Liverpool will face sterner tests than an Ipswich team who have already shipped seven goals in two games.

But nights like this shape belief.

Iraola saw his record signing look like a £125m striker again. He saw Gakpo, almost sold, run the game. He saw Barcola hint at the chaos he can bring. He saw a front line that, for the first time in a long time, looked like it might scare people.

Virgil van Dijk has thrown down the challenge to Gakpo: keep going. The same applies, with even greater weight, to Isak.

Liverpool have waited a year for this version of their number nine. The question now is whether he has finally arrived for good, or whether Portman Road will stand as a glorious one-off in a career still searching for its true rhythm.