Jamie Carragher warns Barcola: Gakpo shines for Liverpool
Jamie Carragher warns Barcola: “This version of Gakpo” leaves little room
Liverpool’s new £123m forward Bradley Barcola has arrived to fanfare and expectation. He’s also arrived to find Cody Gakpo in the form of his Anfield life.
On Friday night at Portman Road, Gakpo ripped through Ipswich Town and left a Liverpool legend wondering how the big-money signing gets into this team. The Reds, under early-season scrutiny after back-to-back 2-2 draws with Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest, needed a statement. They got one in a 2-0 win that felt more controlled than the scoreline suggested.
The platform came early. Two goals inside nine minutes from Alexander Isak calmed every nerve in red. Ipswich fired off 14 shots, but Liverpool never truly lost their grip, largely because of the Dutchman knitting everything together between the lines.
Gakpo didn’t just influence the game; he authored it. Twice he carved Ipswich open, twice Isak finished. The standout moment came with a touch of pure class – an outside-of-the-boot through ball that sliced behind the home defence and sent Isak clear for Liverpool’s second. One pass, and the contest felt done.
Watching on, Jamie Carragher went straight to social media and put the spotlight on Barcola’s problem.
“Barcola is going to struggle to get a game with this version of Gakpo,” he posted on X.
It was blunt, but it matched the evidence. Gakpo has been one of Liverpool’s standout performers across pre-season and the opening weeks of the campaign, enough for the club to shut the door on interest from Manchester City and Tottenham. They chose to keep him. Nights like this show why.
Virgil van Dijk, now Liverpool captain and Gakpo’s international teammate, didn’t hold back in his praise.
“Cody was outstanding,” he 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.”
For Barcola, signed from Paris Saint-Germain to add another high-end option to an already stacked forward line, the message is clear: nothing will be handed to him. Not with Gakpo operating at this level.
Isak steps up as Iraola’s “massive player”
If Gakpo was the conductor, Isak was the ruthless finisher. Last season, after his big move from Newcastle United, the Sweden striker never truly caught fire, his campaign broken up by injury and frustration. This one already feels different.
Two starts. Two full games. Two goals at Ipswich that spoke of a striker finally in rhythm.
Liverpool boss Andoni Iraola knows exactly what he has on his hands.
“He’s a massive player for us,” Iraola 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.”
Isak himself sounded like a man who feels the system, the fitness and the timing starting to click.
“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 linger. Liverpool scored two and could have had plenty more, with Gakpo and Isak already forming the kind of partnership that reshapes a pecking order.
Barcola will get his chance; a £123m signing always does. But on this evidence, he won’t stroll into the side. He’ll have to rip the shirt off a teammate who is currently running games, creating goals and earning public backing from both his captain and a club legend.
For Iraola, that is the best kind of problem. For Barcola, it’s the challenge his Liverpool career starts with.
