Isak double gives Liverpool their first win of the season
Alexander Isak’s quick-fire double in the opening ten minutes of the game secured a first victory of the season for Liverpool against Ipswich Town – and a first under new boss Andoni Iraola.
Isak finished emphatically on six minutes to open the scoring after being fed through on goal by Cody Gakpo, powering a strike through the gloves of Ipswich goalkeeper Kjell Scherpen.
Gakpo could have departed Liverpool in the summer, with Tottenham and Manchester City both keen on signing the Dutchman. But on the early signs this season, keeping him could be the Reds’ most important signing of the summer.
Their latest big money recruit, Bradley Barcola, who came on as a second-half substitute to make his debut for the Reds, will struggle to get in the starting 11 if Gakpo carries on in this vein of form.
He set Isak up again for his second goal just three minutes later. Scherpen will be questioned for his inability to keep out Isak’s first but more so for the manner of the second, in which the decision to come off his line and leave a massive gap to his right-hand side for Isak to slot the ball into the net was ruthlessly executed by the Swedish centre-forward.
The 26-year-old still has a long way to go to deliver on the huge £125m fee Liverpool paid for him a year ago following a nightmare debut season for the club in which he broke his leg, but here he looked like the sharp, instinctive striker that had established himself as one of Europe’s leading forwards at Newcastle.
His movement was superb and if his attacking team-mates can keep finding him like they did in the early stages at Portman Road, he will deliver goals for Iraola.
It has been a far from ideal start for the Spaniard since taking over from Arne Slot this summer, drawing his first two league games in charge, with last week’s 2-2 stalemate at home to Nottingham Forest a particular disappointment.
But they played with a real swagger in attack at times in East Anglia, albeit against an Ipswich side who will have to improve significantly at the back if they are to have a hope of staying up this season.
