Gakpo's Brilliance Leaves Barcola Struggling for Minutes
Jamie Carragher believes Bradley Barcola “is going to struggle to get a game” if Cody Gakpo keeps playing like this.
Liverpool’s £123m summer signing from Paris Saint-Germain is still waiting for his Premier League moment, but at Portman Road on Friday night the stage belonged to Gakpo and Alexander Isak.
Gakpo turns the screw, Isak delivers
Liverpool arrived under mild pressure after back-to-back 2-2 draws against Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest, with Andoni Iraola’s approach already under scrutiny. They walked away from Ipswich Town with a 2-0 win, their first three points of the season, and a front line that suddenly looks sharp and ruthless.
Two goals in nine first-half minutes from Isak settled the contest and settled Liverpool’s nerves. Ipswich had 14 shots, they asked questions, but Liverpool carried the control and, crucially, the quality in both boxes.
Gakpo supplied it. Twice.
The Netherlands forward produced two moments of real class to carve Ipswich open, the standout a delicious outside-of-the-boot through ball that sliced straight through the home defence and sent Isak racing clear for Liverpool’s second. It was the sort of pass that stops a game for a second. The sort of pass that makes managers rethink their team sheets.
That is exactly where Carragher’s mind went.
Carragher warning for Barcola
Taking to X after the game, the Liverpool legend didn’t bother dressing it up. He wrote: “Barcola is going to struggle to get a game with this version of Gakpo.”
It is a pointed line, but it fits the current reality. Gakpo has been one of Liverpool’s standout performers across pre-season and the opening weeks of the campaign. Manchester City and Tottenham both showed interest, yet Liverpool chose to keep him at Anfield, backing him to be central to Iraola’s rebuild.
Right now, that decision looks shrewd. And it leaves Barcola, the big-money arrival expected to light up Liverpool’s new era, staring at a serious fight for minutes.
Van Dijk: ‘Cody was outstanding’
Inside the camp, there is no doubt about Gakpo’s status.
Virgil van Dijk, wearing the armband and anchoring the back line, was quick to underline his compatriot’s importance after the win at Ipswich.
“Cody was outstanding,” the Liverpool captain told Sky Sports. “He’s important for us and he will be important this season as well.
“He showed it today, last week as well with the assist and over the last couple of years.”
Those are not throwaway comments. Van Dijk is effectively stating what the team sheet already hints at: Gakpo is not a rotation piece. He is a pillar of Iraola’s attack.
For Barcola, that raises the bar immediately. To break in, he will have to dislodge a player in form, trusted by his manager and publicly backed by his captain.
Isak answers the fitness question
On the other side of Gakpo’s brilliance was a striker who needed a night like this.
Isak’s first season at Liverpool after his high-profile move from Newcastle United never really caught fire. Injuries chopped up his campaign and left question marks over whether he could be the ruthless No. 9 the club had paid for.
At Portman Road, he offered a firm response.
Two sharp finishes, two goals that oozed a centre-forward finally feeling his body again. His movement looked crisp, his timing back, his confidence obvious.
Iraola, though, made it clear that his demands on the Sweden international go beyond the numbers.
“He’s a massive player for us,” the Liverpool boss 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.”
The message is simple: the goals are expected. The real test will be how Isak knits into the pressing, the build-up, the dirty work that defines Iraola’s sides.
‘We were waiting for the first win’
Isak himself sounded like a player relieved as much as anything.
“We were waiting for the first win,” he admitted. “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.”
That last line will echo around Anfield. Liverpool did not just grind out a result; they hinted at an attacking structure that can still grow, still sharpen, still become far more punishing.
And that loops back to the looming selection headache.
If Gakpo keeps dictating games from the front and Isak keeps finishing like this, where does a £123m winger force his way in?
