Isak Stars in Liverpool's First Win Under Iraola

Andoni Iraola did not have to wait long this time. Ten games for a first victory at Bournemouth; just three as Liverpool head coach. The difference? A razor-sharp Alexander Isak and an Ipswich goalkeeper living through a nightmare.

Two goals in the opening nine minutes from Isak settled a 2-0 win at a raucous Portman Road and cut short any talk of a slow-burn repeat of Iraola’s 2023 start on the south coast. Liverpool were ruthless early, controlled late and, crucially, collected the first clean sheet of the new era.

Isak punishes Scherpen as Liverpool fly out

Portman Road was still finding its voice when Liverpool struck. On six minutes, Cody Gakpo slid a perfectly weighted pass into Isak’s stride. The Swede drove on and let fly. The shot was firm, but Kjell Scherpen should have dealt with it. Instead, it went straight through his palms and into the net. Iraola’s fist pump on the touchline said it all.

Ipswich barely had time to reset. Three minutes later, they were undone again. A simple long ball, Scherpen hesitated, then wandered, and Isak darted in behind down the left. One touch to steady himself, one low finish past a stranded goalkeeper. 2-0. Same combination: Gakpo to Isak. Same outcome: Scherpen exposed.

Isak loves this ground. He hit a hat-trick here for Newcastle on his last visit. For nine breathless minutes, it looked like he might repeat the trick in Liverpool red.

Liverpool’s press, so disjointed in Iraola’s opening two draws, suddenly bit hard. They hunted in packs, pinning Ipswich back and forcing rushed clearances. When they won it high, Isak was waiting, occupying both centre-backs and demanding the ball early.

He thought he had his hat-trick on 33 minutes. Florian Wirtz whipped in a superb cross, Isak peeled away and finished with the confidence of a man who knows the net is his friend. The flag was up. A fraction too early with his run, a fraction away from a first-half treble.

Ipswich respond but pay for early chaos

For Ipswich, the start was a flashback they did not need. The club’s last promotion run was overshadowed by Arijanet Muric’s costly errors. A new season, a new No 1 in Scherpen, but the same sinking feeling.

Once they settled, Gary O’Neil’s side showed why Portman Road is such a difficult place to visit. The crowd stayed with them. The team responded.

On the half-hour, they carved out a big chance. A cross from the right picked out Leif Davis, who arrived unmarked at the back post. He met it cleanly but directed his header wide, with Liverpool suddenly looking vulnerable for the first time.

Ipswich kept pushing, snapping into challenges, forcing Liverpool to retreat a few yards. The damage, though, was already done. At this level, you do not survive gifting a striker of Isak’s calibre two early looks at goal.

Discipline questions and timewasting anger

The second half brought more edge than chances. On 53 minutes, Portman Road erupted in fury. Jérémy Jacquet, already booked for a foul on Emersonn, dived in from behind again. He appeared to take little of the ball, yet referee Darren England did not even award a foul, let alone a second yellow. O’Neil’s bench raged. The home crowd did not forget.

Ipswich’s frustration deepened as Liverpool managed the game with a veteran’s calm. That calm, O’Neil felt, shaded into something else.

"We've been pushed on timewasting a lot," he said afterwards. "My goalkeeper is being hurried up at Old Trafford when we weren't even set and they were able to kill the game a lot easier here. That upset me a bit. They could have been hurried up. Officials did a good job though. VAR arrived to the right conclusion on the penalty."

That penalty flashpoint came on 70 minutes. VAR spotted a foul by Davis on Dominik Szoboszlai and summoned England to the monitor. Just as Liverpool braced for the chance to kill the contest, Stockley Park intervened again: Szoboszlai had been offside in the build-up. No penalty. Ipswich survived, the noise level soared, and yet Liverpool never truly lost control.

Barcola’s quiet debut and Iraola’s new edge

The night also marked the first Premier League sighting of Bradley Barcola in a Liverpool shirt. The £123m signing from PSG stepped off the bench on 66 minutes, introduced into a game that had shifted from chaos to control.

By then, Iraola had dialled down the attacking risk. Liverpool sat in a little deeper, pressed in bursts rather than relentlessly, and focused on shape. It was not spectacular, but it was professional. For a coach still bedding in his ideas, this mattered.

"It's nice, we needed this one," Iraola told Sky Sports. "The way it has been with the clean sheet, controlling the game quite well. We started really strong. It was another kind of second half, not as good as the first half, but we didn't concede any clear chances."

On Isak, he was clear: the goals are just one part of the bargain.

"It's a massive player for us. My demands will not be about the goals: he's fit, in a good shape and he will produce the numbers. But my fights with him are more about other stuff, how to help the team in other situations."

The pressing, he felt, underpinned everything.

"Today we were much, much better in our press. We were recovering very high and then we can contact him in good positions. If we recover the ball lower, it will be more difficult to find him to have less spaces. So we need more quality effort to put our No 9 in situations like he had today."

Isak draws a line under last season

For Isak, this felt like a personal reset. Last season dragged, injuries nagged, rhythm never quite arrived. Here, he looked light, sharp, decisive.

"We were waiting for the first win, and we were talking about starting the game good which we haven't done recently. And we did that with two goals," he said.

"With a normal pre-season, I think we're starting to get the way we want to play, being offensive and attack the defence. We showed that today. We scored two and could have scored more.

"It was not easy. It was a long injury, a difficult season in general. I was thinking: I want to have a good World Cup firstly and then to start the season well, which I feel like I've done now.

"That season is kind of behind me, but it wasn't easy."

If this is the version of Isak Liverpool get under Iraola, the numbers will come. So will the points.

The Ipswich No 1 shirt and a nagging question

For Ipswich, the story that will not go away sits between the posts. Sky Sports’ Lewis Jones called it a curse, and nights like this make it easy to see why.

Muric’s spell as No 1 in their last top-flight campaign was pockmarked by errors at crucial moments. Scherpen was supposed to break that cycle, arriving from Union Saint-Gilloise as the calm presence behind a bold, front-foot side.

Instead, his first major test in the Premier League unravelled in nine brutal minutes. Two mistakes, two goals, and a long, long evening ahead.

Goalkeeping errors at this level do not just concede goals; they change atmospheres, shift belief, rewrite game plans. Ipswich spent much of the night competing, pressing, asking questions of a superior side. One poor decision, one weak save, and all that work was shredded.

They need Scherpen to settle quickly. They cannot afford to fight the opposition and their own nerves every week. Yet as the home fans filed out, having applauded a spirited response after that awful start, one thought lingered: is the Ipswich No 1 shirt a job, or a burden that nobody has quite managed to shake off?