Lewis Koumas Shines in Liverpool's Carabao Cup Victory
Lewis Koumas stood in the bowels of Anfield with a man of the match award in one hand and his phone in the other, making the only call that really mattered. Before the interviews, before the analysis, he rang home.
“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 something more than just a good night’s work. This was a local lad shining for his boyhood club on a big cup night at Anfield, and everyone in the ground could feel it.
Iraola’s demand, Koumas’s response
If Tuesday’s draw with Fulham had irritated Andoni Iraola, he didn’t bother to hide it. The Liverpool head coach had gone public with his frustration at his forwards, calling for sharper pressing, more tenacity, a front line that hunted rather than drifted.
Koumas was never named in that criticism. He didn’t need to be. Against Spurs, he played as if every word had been addressed directly to him.
The 20-year-old ran himself into the turf. He harried Roberto De Zerbi’s defence, chased lost causes, dragged centre-backs into areas they did not want to go. He created lanes and spaces for others, the sort of unglamorous work that rarely makes the highlight reels but wins the trust of demanding coaches.
“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 listened to the praise with the same calm that has marked his rise.
“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 miles to Anfield nights
Iraola did not take long to make up his mind about the Chester-born forward. Within weeks of arriving in the summer, he told then sporting director Richard Hughes he wanted Koumas in his first-team squad, not disappearing into another loan spell.
Koumas had already caught the eye on Liverpool’s pre-season tour of the US. The son of former Tranmere Rovers and West Bromwich Albion playmaker Jason Koumas, he carried the surname and the expectation, but he earned his place the hard way: running, pressing, repeating. This season he has stepped off the bench in both the Premier League and the Champions League. Now he has a first senior man of the match award to go with it.
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.”
That edge comes from experience as much as ambition. Koumas has been capped 12 times for Wales but has had to wait, and then wait some more, for a proper crack at Liverpool. Jürgen Klopp handed him his first start over two years ago; Koumas marked his full debut with a goal in a 3-0 FA Cup fifth-round win over Southampton. Then the door closed again.
He spent 2024-25 on loan at Stoke. The first half of 2025-26 at Birmingham. The second half at Hull. Hard miles, different styles, no guarantees.
“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 the hunger, he insists, has always been his own.
“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 a cool Anfield night, with his family watching from the box and his manager’s trust ringing in his ears, Lewis Koumas showed exactly what that hunger looks like. The question now is not whether he belongs, but how far that relentless energy can carry him in a Liverpool shirt.
