Lewis Koumas Shines in Liverpool's Carabao Cup Victory
Lewis Koumas walked through the bowels of Anfield with a man of the match award in one hand and his phone glued to the other. Before the interviews, before the analysis, there was only one call that mattered.
“That was my mum,” the Liverpool forward said, still grinning, the glow of a 3-1 Carabao Cup third-round win over Tottenham written all over his face. “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 fan, this was the dream made real, live and loud under the Anfield lights. But this wasn’t just a sentimental story. It was a tactical one too.
Koumas answers Iraola’s challenge
Andoni Iraola had set the tone days earlier. After a flat draw with Fulham, the Liverpool head coach demanded more from his forwards – more pressing, more bite, more work without the ball. It sounded like a warning shot to established, high-profile names.
Koumas was never mentioned. He didn’t need to be.
Against Spurs, he simply embodied everything Iraola had asked for. The 20-year-old ran himself into the ground against Roberto De Zerbi’s defence, dragging centre-backs around, opening lanes, creating space for others to play. His movement stretched Tottenham; his relentlessness set the tempo.
“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 with the same calm assurance he shows on the pitch.
“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 circuits 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 he wanted Koumas in the first-team squad, not shipped out again on another loan.
The forward had impressed on Liverpool’s pre-season tour of the US, showing enough in training and friendlies to convince the new coach he could handle the jump. The son of former Tranmere and West Bromwich Albion playmaker Jason Koumas has since ticked off his first Premier League and Champions League appearances as a substitute. Now he has a first senior man of the match award to go with them.
Could he have imagined any of this back at the start of pre-season?
“No, I would have woken up!” the Wales international replied. “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.”
That mindset has been forged away from the Anfield spotlight. Koumas has 12 caps for Wales, yet his club career has demanded patience and resilience. Jürgen Klopp gave 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 the door closed.
He did not play for his boyhood club again until Iraola walked through the entrance. Instead, he went to Stoke for the 2024-25 season, then spent the first half of 2025-26 at Birmingham and the second half at Hull. Those spells hardened him, but they also tested his conviction.
“I never showed a weak mentality about how the future would look for me at Liverpool,” he said. Michael Owen and Gareth Bale were his childhood inspirations, but belief had to come from within. “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, that hunger crackled through every sprint, every press, every chase into a lost cause. Iraola wanted a forward line that hunted in packs again. Koumas showed what that can look like.
The next test comes quickly: a birthday, a trip to Bournemouth, and a manager who has already made clear he trusts him. The question now is not whether Lewis Koumas belongs at this level – it’s how far, and how fast, he can run with it.
