Isak Leads Liverpool to First Win Under Iraola Against Ipswich
Andoni Iraola did not have to wait long this time. Ten games for a first win at Bournemouth; just three as Liverpool head coach. The difference was Alexander Isak – ruthless, sharp and helped by a goalkeeper living a nightmare.
Two goals inside nine minutes from the Swede silenced a raucous Portman Road and carried Liverpool to a 2-0 victory, their first under Iraola and their first clean sheet of his reign. It felt like a small but important line in the sand.
Isak punishes Scherpen as Liverpool fly out of the blocks
Ipswich started with noise, not control. Liverpool killed that inside six minutes.
Cody Gakpo, thriving in Iraola’s aggressive, front-foot system, slid a perfectly weighted ball into Isak’s stride. The finish was powerful but straight; Kjell Scherpen should have dealt with it. Instead, the ball burst through his palms and into the net. Portman Road groaned. Liverpool led.
Ipswich barely had time to reset before the damage doubled. Another Gakpo pass, another misjudgement from Scherpen. A long ball tempted the goalkeeper into no man’s land, Isak nipped in down the left and rolled a low finish past him. Two shots, two goals, two glaring questions about the man in Ipswich’s goal.
Isak, who had hit a hat-trick here with Newcastle on his last visit, looked like he owned the pitch again. For nine minutes, Ipswich were chasing shadows and their own nerves.
Liverpool smelled blood. Florian Wirtz’s whipped cross on 33 minutes found Isak darting across the line to flick home what he thought was his hat-trick. The flag went up. He had gone a fraction too early. Relief for Ipswich, a warning that the game could already have been out of sight.
Ipswich respond, but the curse in goal lingers
Once the early chaos settled, Gary O’Neil’s side actually played. They pressed higher, used the ball better and forced Liverpool into a more honest contest.
Leif Davis rose at the back post on 30 minutes, meeting a cross from the right, but his header drifted wide with Liverpool suddenly looking vulnerable. It was the kind of moment Ipswich needed to take if they were to turn the mood.
Instead, the story kept circling back to the man in gloves.
Scherpen arrived from Union Saint-Gilloise to steady a position already scarred by Arijanet Muric’s costly errors last season. On this evidence, the anxiety has not left. At this level, one mistake can wreck a half. Two in nine minutes against a side with Liverpool’s attacking talent leaves you clinging on.
Ipswich did not fold. They competed, they tackled, they chased. When the final whistle went, Portman Road still found its voice to cheer them off. But the sense of a cursed No 1 shirt will not fade quickly after this.
Iraola’s Liverpool show control after the storm
The second half belonged less to chaos and more to control. Iraola, scarred by those winless weeks at Bournemouth, was not interested in turning this into a shootout.
Liverpool tightened up, pressed smarter and managed the game. “We started really strong,” Iraola said, pleased with the clean sheet and the way his side “controlled the game quite well” despite a less fluent second half.
His demands on Isak go beyond goals, he stressed, focusing on pressing and all-round contribution. But when your centre-forward finishes like this, the rest of the tactical detail suddenly looks a lot easier to sell.
Dominik Szoboszlai briefly thought he had earned a penalty when VAR spotted a foul by Davis, only for the check to reveal an offside in the build-up. Referee Darren England, sent to the monitor, overturned the decision. No penalty. No drama for Liverpool.
Bradley Barcola’s introduction on 66 minutes added a different kind of intrigue. The £123m signing from PSG stepped into his Premier League debut with Liverpool already easing off the throttle, the visitors content to protect what they had and tick off Iraola’s first win.
It was tidy, not explosive. Professional, not spectacular. That was exactly what the head coach wanted.
Flashpoints and frustration for Ipswich
The home crowd found its fury in other places. Jérémy Jacquet, already booked for a foul on Emersonn, flew in from behind again on 53 minutes. Ipswich expected at least a free-kick, many wanted a second yellow. England waved play on. No foul. No card. The anger inside Portman Road was instant and loud.
O’Neil’s frustration extended to Liverpool’s game management. He pointed to how his own goalkeeper had been hurried up at Old Trafford, contrasting that with the time Liverpool were allowed to take here as they “killed the game”. He accepted the officials reached the right decision on the Szoboszlai penalty incident, but made it clear he felt the visitors could have been pushed more on time-wasting.
Ipswich now have back-to-back defeats, but this was no collapse. Once they recovered from that brutal opening, they went toe-to-toe with a side expected to be in the upper reaches of the table and earned the appreciation of their supporters.
A new tone for Liverpool, familiar questions for Ipswich
For Liverpool, the night delivered almost everything Iraola needed: a fast start, a dominant No 9, a double-assist display from Gakpo, and a first clean sheet to hang his principles on. The memory of that winless run at Bournemouth will not vanish, but it no longer shadows every touchline step.
For Ipswich, the performance offers encouragement. The position in goal does not. With Muric’s struggles still fresh and Scherpen’s first big test ending in two decisive errors, the question lingers over Portman Road: can this team really grow into the season if the shirt with No 1 on the back keeps feeling like a burden?
