Lewis Koumas Shines with Man of the Match Award for Liverpool

Lewis Koumas walked through the bowels of Anfield with a man of the match award in one hand and his phone pressed to his ear with the other. Before the interviews, before the analysis, there was only one call that mattered.

“That was my mum,” the Liverpool forward said, still glowing from the 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.”

On a night when Liverpool needed a response, Koumas gave them something more: a reminder of what it looks like when a local lad runs himself into the ground for his club.

A manager’s challenge, a forward’s answer

Andoni Iraola had not been subtle in the build-up. After a flat draw with Fulham, he publicly demanded more pressing, more aggression, more bite from his forwards. The criticism seemed aimed at bigger reputations and bigger salaries than Koumas. It landed with him anyway.

Against Spurs, the 20-year-old – 21 on Saturday – treated Iraola’s words like a personal assignment. He chased, harried and snapped at Roberto De Zerbi’s defence, dragging them into areas they did not want to go, creating room for others to play. By the end, he looked spent. The crowd loved every second.

“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.”

For Koumas, this was not a revelation but a confirmation.

“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 lights

Iraola did not take long to make up his mind in the summer. Within weeks of arriving, he told then sporting director Richard Hughes that Koumas should stay, that there would be no more loans. The Chester-born forward had done enough on Liverpool’s pre-season tour of the US to convince his new head coach he could contribute now, not later.

This season has already brought Premier League and Champions League cameos from the bench. Tottenham brought something new: a first senior man of the match award for Liverpool.

Could he have pictured any of this when he reported back for pre-season?

“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.”

That sense of jeopardy has been earned. Koumas, a Wales international capped 12 times, has had to wait his turn at club level. Jürgen Klopp gave him his first Liverpool start more than two years ago, and he marked it with a goal in a 3-0 FA Cup fifth round win over Southampton. Then the door closed.

What followed was the hard road: a season on loan at Stoke in 2024-25, half a campaign with Birmingham, then the remainder of 2025-26 at Hull. Necessary miles, away from the spotlight and the “You’ll Never Walk Alone” backdrop, but miles that could easily have dulled his edge.

He insists they did the opposite.

“I never showed a weak mentality about how the future would look for me at Liverpool,” Koumas said. “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.”

Roots, role models and what comes next

Football is in his blood. Koumas is the son of Jason, the gifted playmaker who lit up Tranmere and West Bromwich Albion. The surname is familiar, but the path has been very much his own.

He talks about Michael Owen and Gareth Bale as childhood inspirations, players who married raw pace with ruthless intent. He can play through the middle or off the flank, and under Iraola he has found a coach who values the uglier side of that job as much as the goals.

Liverpool head to Bournemouth on Sunday, a trip loaded with subplots for Iraola given his time there, and Koumas will turn 21 the day before. The timing feels symbolic: a young forward stepping into a new phase of his career just as his manager tries to reshape the identity of a new-look Liverpool.

For now, though, the image that lingers is not of a press, a sprint or a shot. It is of a young man under the Anfield lights, trophy in hand, calling the family who watched from a box and lived every kick with him.

The boyhood fan, the academy product, the Wales international who refused to let the hunger fade, now has his breakthrough night. The question, for Liverpool and for Iraola, is how far that energy can carry them.