Lewis Koumas Shines in Liverpool's Carabao Cup Victory

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 and the analysis, there was one call he had to make.

“That was my mum,” he said, still glowing from the 3-1 Carabao Cup third round win over Tottenham and the trophy Cody Gakpo had just handed him. “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.”

For a boyhood Liverpool supporter, this was the dream in real time. For Andoni Iraola, it was also the perfect answer to a pointed demand.

Iraola’s message, Koumas’s response

Days earlier, the Liverpool head coach had challenged his forwards in public. After a flat draw with Fulham, he called for sharper pressing, more edge, more tenacity from his front line. The words were clearly aimed at more established, more expensive names.

Koumas was not really part of that conversation. By full-time against Spurs, he had forced his way right into the middle of it.

The 20-year-old ran himself to exhaustion against Roberto De Zerbi’s defence, dragging centre-backs into places they did not want to go, opening lanes for team-mates, harrying and snapping at heels. He did the ugly work with a kind of joy, the sort of shift that lifts a stadium as much as any step-over.

“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. He took the praise the way he plays – head up, no fuss, straight to the point.

“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 rounds to Anfield nights

Iraola’s faith did not arrive by accident. Within weeks of taking the job in the summer, he told then sporting director Richard Hughes that Koumas should stay at Liverpool, not disappear into another loan.

The Chester-born forward had already done his time on the circuit. After Jürgen Klopp handed him a first Liverpool start more than two years ago – a full debut capped with a goal in a 3-0 FA Cup fifth round win over Southampton – his path stalled. He did not play for his boyhood club again until Iraola walked through the door.

Instead, he gathered experience in less glamorous surroundings: a season at Stoke in 2024-25, then a split 2025-26 campaign, first at Birmingham, then at Hull. Hard yards, hard lessons.

“I never showed a weak mentality about how the future would look for me at Liverpool,” Koumas said. He namechecks Michael Owen and Gareth Bale as childhood inspirations, players who broke through young and never backed down. “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.”

The work in pre-season in the US confirmed Iraola’s instincts. Koumas impressed on tour, then forced his way into the matchday picture. This season has already brought his first Premier League and Champions League appearances as a substitute. Now comes his first senior man of the match award.

Could he have pictured this back in July?

“No, I would have woken up!” he laughed. “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.”

Wales caps, Liverpool identity

Koumas is no stranger to international football. The Wales forward already has 12 caps, a reminder that while his club career has taken the scenic route, his talent has never really been in doubt. He can play through the middle, he can drift wide, he can adapt.

The difference now is that his game finally has a Liverpool frame around it. The pressing, the angles of his runs, the intensity without the ball – all of it speaks to a player who has listened, learned and then delivered on a big night.

“I think how I play is ultimately the Liverpool way,” he repeated. It did not sound like a slogan. It sounded like a conviction.

For Iraola, still shaping his first Liverpool squad, Koumas offers more than energy. He offers an example. A young forward who has waited, worked, gone on loan, come back, and then seized the moment when it arrived.

The next stop is Bournemouth, and a reunion of sorts for the coach with his former club. Koumas will celebrate his 21st birthday the day before that trip. The phone will ring again, no doubt. The family will be watching again.

The question now is not whether he belongs at this level. It is how far, and how fast, he can run with the chance he has fought so hard to earn.