Lewis Koumas Shines in Carabao Cup Victory at Anfield
Lewis Koumas stepped out of the Anfield tunnel with a man of the match award in one hand and his phone in the other. Before the interviews, before the replays, there was only one call he wanted to make.
“That was my mum,” the Liverpool forward said, still grinning as Cody Gakpo’s award glinted under the lights after a 3-1 Carabao Cup third-round win over Tottenham. “She was here tonight with my nan, my granddad and my sister. They were all in the box. I rang them straight away to show them the trophy and they were buzzing.”
It meant everything. Not just the performance, but where it had happened and who it was for. A boyhood Liverpool fan, shining at Anfield with his family watching on.
Iraola’s ideal forward
The night was about emotion, but it also said plenty about footballing detail and demands. Andoni Iraola had spent the build-up challenging his forwards, pointedly calling for more aggression and intensity after a flat draw with Fulham. The message had been aimed at bigger names, bigger fees, bigger reputations.
Koumas was never mentioned. He answered anyway.
From the first whistle he harried, chased and snapped at Tottenham’s back line, running himself into the ground against Roberto De Zerbi’s defence. He dragged centre-backs into areas they did not want to go, opened lanes for team-mates and set the tone for Liverpool’s press. Every sprint, every tackle, every recovery run looked like a direct response to his manager’s demands.
“The energy he shows is contagious,” Iraola said afterwards. “I’m very happy for him. He does it in training every day. He is very clear what he needs to do, what the team needs.”
Koumas turns 21 on Saturday, the day before Liverpool travel to Iraola’s former club Bournemouth. The compliment from his head coach could have gone to his head. Instead, he treated it like another assignment.
“I think how I play is ultimately the Liverpool way,” he said. “We’ve always been a club where players have to give absolutely everything on the pitch. We’re bringing that back now and the crowd are loving it.
A lot of it is about what I do off the ball. The gaffer has shown trust to me that I can carry out his plans in terms of how we want to play tactically. I was happy to do that for him. It gives me so much motivation the fact he’s putting me in for a game like this. I want to kick on now.”
From loan spells to Anfield nights
Iraola’s faith did not arrive overnight. Within weeks of his appointment this summer, he told then sporting director Richard Hughes that Koumas should stay at Liverpool, not disappear into another loan move. The pre-season tour of the US confirmed his view: the Chester-born forward belonged around the first team.
The son of former Tranmere Rovers and West Bromwich Albion playmaker Jason Koumas has since ticked off a series of milestones. Premier League debut from the bench. Champions League appearance. Now a first senior man of the match award, earned against top-flight opposition at Anfield.
Could he have pictured this back in July?
“No, I would have woken up!” the Wales international said. “I would have thought I was dreaming. It’s crazy. But I’m just really happy and very grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given. You never know when your last time on the pitch for Liverpool is going to be. I just try to leave everything out there every time.”
His route to this point has not been simple. Koumas has 12 caps for Wales but had to wait for a proper run at club level. Jürgen Klopp handed him his first Liverpool start more than two years ago, and he marked that full debut with a goal in a 3-0 FA Cup fifth-round win over Southampton.
Then came the hard part: nothing. No further appearances for his boyhood club until Iraola walked through the door.
Instead, there were loans. The 2024-25 campaign at Stoke. The first half of 2025-26 with Birmingham. The second half with Hull. Different cities, different systems, same question: would the path ever lead back to Anfield?
“I never showed a weak mentality about how the future would look for me at Liverpool,” Koumas said. He grew up watching Michael Owen and Gareth Bale, moulding his game around their movement and ruthlessness. The belief never shifted.
“I always had the drive that I would get here. The reason for going out on loan was to prepare for this moment. A lot of hunger can be lost in the game with how things go. But for me coming through the pre-academy and right through the academy, my hunger has always been there.
My hunger comes from representing Liverpool Football Club, wanting to give everything for the best club in the world.”
On Wednesday night, with a trophy in his hand and his family on the other end of the line, that hunger finally had its Anfield stage. The question now is not whether Lewis Koumas belongs here.
It’s how far this energy, and this attitude, can take him in a Liverpool shirt.
