Lewis Koumas Shines in Liverpool's Carabao Cup Win

Lewis Koumas stood in the bowels of Anfield with a man of the match award in one hand and his phone in the other, and there was only one call he wanted to make.

“That was my mum,” the Liverpool forward said, still glowing after Cody Gakpo had handed him the trophy following a 3-1 Carabao Cup third-round win over Tottenham. “She was here tonight with my nan, my granddad and my sister. They were all in the box. I rang them straight away to show them the trophy and they were buzzing.”

On a night when the emotion of representing his boyhood club crackled around the stadium, Koumas showed exactly what it now takes to lead the line for Andoni Iraola.

The perfect response to a public challenge

Iraola had not hidden his frustration after Liverpool’s flat draw with Fulham on Saturday. He wanted more from his forwards: more pressing, more bite, more work without the ball. The message sounded like a warning to the bigger names in his squad.

Koumas was not really part of that conversation. By full-time against Spurs, he may as well have been its answer.

The 20-year-old ran himself into the turf against Roberto De Zerbi’s side, constantly harrying, dragging defenders around, opening lanes for others. His movement created space, his intensity set the tone. He did not just listen to Iraola’s demands. He embodied them.

“The energy he shows is contagious,” Iraola said afterwards. “I’m very happy for him. He does it in training every day. He is very clear what he needs to do, what the team needs.”

Koumas turns 21 on Saturday, the day before Liverpool travel to Iraola’s former club Bournemouth. He took his manager’s praise in the same calm, studious manner he had taken on Tottenham’s back line.

“I think how I play is ultimately the Liverpool way,” he said. “We’ve always been a club where players have to give absolutely everything on the pitch. We’re bringing that back now and the crowd are loving it.

“A lot of it is about what I do off the ball. The gaffer has shown trust to me that I can carry out his plans in terms of how we want to play tactically. I was happy to do that for him. It gives me so much motivation the fact he’s putting me in for a game like this. I want to kick on now.”

From loan circuits to Anfield nights

Iraola’s faith in Koumas arrived quickly. Within weeks of walking through the door this summer, the Basque coach told then sporting director Richard Hughes he wanted the Chester-born forward kept at the club, not shipped out on another loan.

Koumas had already impressed on Liverpool’s pre-season tour of the US, and the rewards have followed. He has now made his Premier League and Champions League debuts as a substitute and, against Spurs, collected his first man of the match award at senior level. For the son of former Tranmere and West Bromwich Albion playmaker Jason Koumas, it felt like a significant step out of the shadow of a famous surname.

Could he have imagined this back at the start of pre-season?

“No, I would have woken up!” the Wales international said with a grin. “I would have thought I was dreaming. It’s crazy. But I’m just really happy and very grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given.

“You never know when your last time on the pitch for Liverpool is going to be. I just try to leave everything out there every time.”

That attitude has been forged away from Anfield’s lights. Capped 12 times by Wales, Koumas has had to wait for a real crack at Liverpool. Jürgen Klopp gave him his first start more than two years ago and he marked his full debut with a goal in a 3-0 FA Cup fifth-round win over Southampton. Then the door closed again.

He did not feature for his boyhood club until Iraola arrived, instead spending 2024-25 on loan at Stoke, the first half of 2025-26 at Birmingham and the second half at Hull. Hard miles, far from the glamour, but crucial ones.

“I never showed a weak mentality about how the future would look for me at Liverpool,” he insisted. He namechecks Michael Owen and Gareth Bale as childhood inspirations, but his own path has been slower, tougher. “I always had the drive that I would get here. The reason for going out on loan was to prepare for this moment.

“A lot of hunger can be lost in the game with how things go. But for me coming through the pre-academy and right through the academy, my hunger has always been there. My hunger comes from representing Liverpool Football Club, wanting to give everything for the best club in the world.”

On Wednesday night, that hunger was written across every sprint, every press, every chase into a lost cause. The trophy he held up to his family on FaceTime was a reward, yes. But it also looked like a marker.

If this is what Iraola’s “Liverpool way” is going to look like, Koumas is determined his name will be stitched into it.