Alexander Isak Shines in Liverpool's Victory at Ipswich

Alexander Isak walked into Portman Road on Friday night carrying a £125m price tag and a year’s worth of questions. He walked out looking every inch the striker Liverpool thought they were buying – and with Ipswich Town wondering what had just hit them.

Two goals in nine ruthless minutes. A 2-0 win. Andoni Iraola’s first Premier League victory. Liverpool’s season finally up and running.

Strip it back and this was a straightforward assignment: a newly promoted side, brave but brittle, who had conceded five at Manchester United the previous week. Ipswich were willing, they were open, and against real attacking quality they were always likely to suffer.

But this was about more than three points in Suffolk. This was about Isak finally resembling the player Liverpool tore from Newcastle United in an acrimonious, record-breaking move last summer – and Cody Gakpo reminding everyone why Liverpool were so relieved, in the end, that he never made it to Manchester City.

Isak unleashed, Gakpo conducting

For most of last season, Isak looked like a cautionary tale. He arrived unfit after effectively downing tools on Tyneside to force his move, then broke down physically and mentally as Liverpool’s title defence collapsed around him and Arne Slot paid with his job.

The numbers told a bleak story. Twenty-two games, 1,033 minutes, four goals. In the league, 14 appearances, 703 minutes, three goals – one every 234 minutes. For a British-record signing, it felt like a vanity purchase gone badly wrong.

He was outshone by Hugo Ekitike, lost in a side that forgot how to attack with conviction. An expensive bystander in a team drifting away from the standards that had brought them the title only a year earlier.

This looked like another player entirely.

From the first whistle, Liverpool played to his strengths: balls in behind, aggressive pressing, space to attack. The Isak who terrorised defences for Newcastle suddenly reappeared, lean and sharp, running channels and sensing weakness.

And right behind him, pulling the strings, was Gakpo – the forward who should, by now, have been part of Enzo Maresca’s Manchester City rebuild.

He was ready to go. The move was there. But when Liverpool failed to land Yankuba Minteh from Brighton or Crystal Palace’s Ismaila Sarr, the deal died and Gakpo stayed put at Anfield.

It already feels like a sliding-doors moment.

Here, Gakpo delivered a creative clinic that killed the contest before Ipswich had even settled. His touch, his vision, his weight of pass – all of it screamed a player operating at the peak of his confidence.

Two goals, one statement

The breakthrough came on six minutes. Gakpo slipped a clever ball between Leif Davis and Jacob Greaves, inviting Isak to burst through the gap. The Swede did not hesitate.

One touch to set himself, then a vicious right-foot strike that carried too much power for Kjell Scherpen. The Ipswich keeper should have done far better than simply helping it into his own net, but the tone was set. Liverpool were ahead, and Isak was finally snarling again.

Three minutes later, Liverpool produced a goal of pure class.

From inside his own half, Gakpo caressed a pass with the outside of his right foot, bending it perfectly into Isak’s path. What followed was all composure and craft. A left-foot flick to glide inside Greaves as Scherpen advanced, a right-foot touch to wrong-foot the keeper, and then a calm left-foot finish rolled into the corner.

From Gakpo’s audacious vision to Isak’s icy execution, it was perfection. Iraola’s grin on the touchline said everything. The game, at that point, was effectively done.

A striker reborn

Isak’s season had started awkwardly. He endured a miserable return to Tyneside on the opening day and even his goal in the 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest at Anfield brought questions about his overall display.

This was different. This was conviction.

He looked like a forward who finally understood his role and trusted his body. He pressed with intent, ran with purpose, and played as if the fog of last season had finally lifted.

Iraola made it clear what he expects.

"He's a massive player for us," the Liverpool manager 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, too, knows what this means.

"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."

He did not shy away from the reality of last year either.

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

Gakpo’s twist of fate

Isak took the headlines, but Gakpo’s resurgence is just as significant for Liverpool’s season.

He struggled last term, drifting in and out of games, never quite finding the authority his talent demands. Now he looks liberated. Two assists here only scratch the surface of his influence: his movement, his link play, his tempo-setting all dragged Ipswich around and opened the pitch for Liverpool’s runners.

Virgil van Dijk, his captain for club and country, knows how important his compatriot is.

"It's massive. I said it before the transfer window had closed," Van Dijk 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."

Liverpool will feel the same about Isak. Iraola cannot afford this to be a one-off, a bright flash before another lull. The manager has his first league win, his marquee striker finally looks unlocked, and Bradley Barcola – electric in a 26-minute debut cameo after his £123m move from Paris St-Germain – has already hinted at the chaos he can cause with that searing pace.

On a night when almost everything went right, one question lingers over Anfield’s season ahead: is this the night Alexander Isak truly arrived as Liverpool’s leader of the line, or just the first act in a story that still has to prove it can last?