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A first win for Andoni Iraola’s Liverpool, the introduction of the latest star signing in Bradley Barcola making for a successful Friday night. Better yet, continuing signs that Alexander Isak, last year’s model, is coming back to life, his two, well-taken early goals securing the three points.
If Ipswich’s defending was less than watertight, Liverpool’s attackers were full of the speed and invention they sorely lacked for much of last season.
Once Barcola arrived in the second half, those velocity levels increased yet higher, Liverpool playing the attacking football, high on risk and entertainment, that the appointment of Iraola promised.
Travelling Liverpool fans were made to wait for their first glimpse of £123m Barcola, his being benched adding further suspense to a deal that took an entire summer to complete. Making his first start, Ronald Araújo, the former Barcelona captain in the right-back position Liverpool failed to fortify before the window closed.
Ipswich, having broken the home duck they waited until 30 December to break two seasons ago in their opening match with Sunderland, looked to show the “emotional discipline” their manager said they lacked in losing 5-2 at Old Trafford. Little of that was in evidence in their ruinous opening spell.
How long will Iraola’s doctrines take to embed? Perhaps not as long as feared. The club’s suit class, particularly departing sporting director Richard Hughes, has absorbed sustained heat for a botched squad construction. Though Isak, the most expensive player signed under Hughes, looks – at last – to be flowering. To follow his strike against Nottingham Forest, he had scored twice by the 10th minute. Assisted for both by barrelling surges from Cody Gakpo, who might have been at Manchester City or Tottenham had the runes been right, the finishes were of the gold standard Liverpool invested so heavily in.
Just as at Old Trafford, two Ipswich goals were conceded in quick, damaging succession, heads lost, Gary O’Neil’s team far too vulnerable to their opponent’s speed of movement. After Victor Muñoz set off a long run stopped only by Issa Diop’s last-man tackle, Julio Enciso controlled the ball, standing on it, as if calling for calm from his colleagues.
Isak, who had a third first-half goal disallowed for offside, was making the runs that made his reputation, looking nothing like the sorry figure he cut in his debut, lost season before injury ruled him out for five months. Ipswich were being toyed with, and a no-look pass from their captain, Dara O’Shea, straight to Gakpo, betrayed a collective cognitive dissonance. Enciso, at least, remained purposeful, and Leif Davis’s header over from Abdul Fatawu’s cross suggested chance creation was not fully beyond Ipswich.
Florian Wirtz becoming involved with the tricks and flicks offered another pointer that last summer’s huge Liverpool outlay may not have been so wasteful as it appeared in Arne Slot’s dog days. Iraola’s appointment came with a reputation for improving players, and should the Basque get the best from a player in a similar price bracket to Barcola and Isak, then his pronouncement he is happy with his squad will ring truer than it sounded this week.
Liverpool’s second half began with another Gakpo surge and a free Alexis Mac Allister header, as Ipswich looked to build of what had been an improved end of the first 45. Another gap in the Liverpool squad is a commanding defensive midfielder, and Enciso often found such empty spaces. Virgil van Dijk and Jérémy Jacquet mirrored each other in their calm, even if the apprentice did lose his cool a couple of times when confronted with the physical presence of Emersonn. Beyond the break, with O’Neil in full flow, barking at players and officials alike from the sidelines, Ipswich upped the rough stuff, more confrontational, less admiring of their opponent’s higher skill levels.
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Muñoz, stocky and adventurous, might well prove the answer to the right-wing vacancy left by Mohamed Salah, his head-down running drawing Ipswich defenders to him, and showing off a ready work ethic before he departed in the double substitution that brought Barcola into proceedings. Isak also departed as Ryan Gravenberch arrived to shore of those midfield gaps.
With Gakpo pushed to centre forward, Barcola’s first touches came off the left, one drop of the shoulder beyond O’Shea lifting the volume among the away fans.
That preceded another loss of Ipswich faculties as Davis first pulled Dominik Szoboszlai, and then knocked him over with a trailing leg for what appeared a clear penalty. Only an offside picked up by the video assistant protected the Ipswich defender’s modesty. The announcement registered as the loudest cheer of the night from a home contingent starved of little beyond a manful late flurry from their team.
Barcola, even in the warp speed of the Premier League, showed lightning acceleration when blazing from the left to create a chance for Gakpo, an impressive cameo, with the expectation of much more to come.
