LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Tuesday, September 15, 2026: Liverpool's Lewis Koumas during the Football League Cup 3rd Round match between Liverpool FC and Tottenham Hotspur FC at Anfield. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Tuesday, September 15, 2026: Liverpool's Lewis Koumas during the Football League Cup 3rd Round match between Liverpool FC and Tottenham Hotspur FC at Anfield. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Lewis Koumas did not light up the numbers sheet, but he showed stats do not always tell the whole story, as his energy proved “contagious” and crucial for Liverpool.
He might already be a League Cup winner for Liverpool, but Koumas’ start against Tottenham in the Carabao Cup was his first for the club since February 2024.
And if you missed the match and only consulted the stats after, you could be led to believe that the 20-year-old saw the game pass him by, but he was not named Man of the Match for nothing.
“The energy he shows is contagious for the rest,” Andoni Iraola enthused after the match.
“When you see the runs up front, giving everything, you are kind of forced to go behind and use the same intensity levels. I am very happy for him.”
The numbers vs. the eye test
On paper, Koumas’ statistics across his 86 minutes on the pitch at centre-forward do not stand out for a player named Man of the Match.
The 20-year-old recorded just 27 touches, completed four passes from six attempts, missed one big chance, and won a single duel out of the six he contested, per FotMob.
Yet, those numbers completely miss the intangibles of his off-the-ball efforts, like creating space, defensive running and acting as the trigger to Liverpool’s high press, qualities that rarely show up on a standard stat sheet.
His pressure forced Tottenham to make hurried clearances from the back, leading to low-quality balls that, as Iraola previously explained, make everyone ‘look better’.
“If the ones up front are doing their job very well, the defenders look very good because all the balls that arrive are not clean,” he said pre-match.
His five touches in the opposition box were the second-most of any player, behind only Cody Gakpo (6), showing he didn’t drop needlessly deep and contributed to the attack.
He had one shot on target and another two on the edge of the area blocked, with only Alexis Mac Allister (4) managing more efforts on goal.
“He does it in training every day,” Iraola praised. “He is very clear on what he needs to do, what the team needs.”
It is the type of selfless play that made Roberto Firmino so valuable under Jurgen Klopp, and while that is a lofty comparison, Koumas showed against Tottenham that you don’t need jaw-dropping stats to have a significant influence on a game.
Football – Football League Cup – 3rd Round – Liverpool FC v Tottenham Hotspur FC
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Tuesday, September 15, 2026: Liverpool's goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili during the Football League Cup 3rd Round match between Liverpool FC and Tottenham Hotspur FC at Anfield. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
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