Isak pounces to give Liverpool victory on Iraola’s return to Bournemouth

At the final whistle, with victory secured, Andoni Iraola hugged both his current players and the players he had coached to success at Bournemouth last season. Liverpool are not yet the powerful, dominant team that Iraola wants them to become. But they did enough to win three points here, with Alexander Isak ending an unusual performance with an easy goal.

Cody Gakpo was again the architect, the Dutchman the supplier for all four of Isak’s goals this season. Isak’s only other shot before scoring was to balloon a first-time effort high and wide but his second-half strike was sufficient to return Liverpool to winning ways in the Premier League.

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Perhaps it was inevitable that these teams would neutralise each other. On Iraola’s final day at Bournemouth’s training base he spent an hour in the company of his successor, Marco Rose, who is yet to taste victory in the Premier League. The pair stopped talking only because Tiago Pinto, Bournemouth’s sporting director, interrupted to remind them there were other things on the agenda.

“We knew what we were going to get, they knew what they were going to get and maybe you could see it,” Rose said. “It is mostly the same after our games; I sit here after a good performance, but you don’t get points for good performances. You have to force wins.”

Amine Adli, sidelined because of a calf injury, scored a 95th-minute winner in a 3-2 victory for Bournemouth in this fixture last season but there was no such chaos to this game. The only clear sight of goal arrived approaching the hour when Gakpo bypassed Adrien Truffert down the right flank and squared, the ball trickling towards Isak on the edge of the six-yard box.

A few minutes earlier Isak had sent Iraola retreating to the away dugout. “Yes, yes,” Iraola said, encouraging Isak as the Sweden striker made tracks on the wing, white shirts attacking the box, only for his wayward cross to end up with the ball flying towards the scaffolding structure in a corner of this ground, part of Bournemouth’s ongoing stadium upgrade.

In midweek, Iraola was rooting for his former club on their European bow but promised a businesslike return to Bournemouth and stepped off one of the two Liverpool team coaches with a game face. Tommy Elphick, who captained Bournemouth to the Premier League in 2015 and followed Iraola to Liverpool, embraced old colleagues pitchside before the warm-up.

“I love it because I love this club and it is growing,” Iraola said after Liverpool extended their unbeaten start to seven games in all competitions. “They will enjoy European nights here. This stadium will become a lot nicer. I was delighted to see a lot of the people I appreciate so much.”

Iraola said the friendly greetings could wait until after the match. Pablo de la Torre, his fitness coach who used to work for him at Bournemouth, showed this clearly within the first 30 seconds. He took the ball away from Adam Smith to stop the home team taking a quick throw-in. Bournemouth wanted to build on their historic win on Thursday in the Basque Country. They had the best chance of the first half, but Alisson made a good save with his right hand to stop Evanilson's header from going in at the near post.

Dominik Szoboszlai dropped a typically vicious free-kick wide of Djordje Petrovic’s post and Petrovic saved a deflected Bradley Barcola shot, but Liverpool spent much of the first half containing Bournemouth’s threats. Iraola conceded that his side were slow out of the blocks.

“We didn’t start with the intensity that is required to win here,” he said. “You never play comfortably here – Bournemouth put you under pressure and you have to adapt.”

Liverpool only teased glimpses of quality. Florian Wirtz saw a disguised pass for Isak cut out and Bournemouth flew forward, the alert and again impressive Jérémy Jacquet extinguishing the danger as Ryan Christie flung his body to connect with a low cross. Christie chopped inside Szoboszlai close to the touchline and Scott switched play with a pinged diagonal pass.

Bournemouth seemed to be growing more confident. But then Gakpo moved past Truffert easily. Truffert is usually a reliable player and was recalled to the France squad last week. Gakpo crossed the ball from the right. James Hill dived in to stop Wirtz's shot at the front post. The ball then fell to Isak, who was unmarked at the edge of the six-yard box. Isak calmly put the ball into the net.

It was not a nerveless finale. Iraola hopped on the touchline as Scott, poised to make his England debut in this international window, lined up a 90th-minute free‑kick. After Liverpool won a free-kick deep into four minutes of stoppage time, Iraola crossed his hands and frantically pointed his players towards the scoreboard showing there were only a matter of seconds remaining. Moments later, it was a case of job done. “I think in life you always get what you deserve,” a phlegmatic Rose said. “One error is too much, that’s the point.”