Lewis Koumas impressed for Liverpool against Tottenham, winning the Player of the Match award and setting the tone on a very good night for Andoni Iraola's side
Liverpool forward Lewis Koumas starred against Tottenham.
Liverpool forward Lewis Koumas starred against Tottenham.(Image: Michael Regan/Getty Images)
Lewis Koumas beamed. Somehow, after a colossal output of intense running against Tottenham, he was still full of energy.
On the pitch, Liverpool's stand-in number nine, playing to give Alexander Isak a rest, set the tone for an intense night of pressing, laying down the exact kind of effort and endeavor that Andoni Iraola's style demands. Afterwards, he was spotted on FaceTime with his mum, showing off the Player of the Match award that he was clutching.
Koumas had one big chance to score, but his main role was leading the line for the Reds. He linked play well at times, and his intensity across the course of the 86 minutes that he played was unmatched.
"I think how I play is ultimately the Liverpool Way," Koumas told reporters at Anfield, still with his individual trophy in hand.
"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 in 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 that he's putting me in for a game like this. I want to kick on now. I definitely feel like I'm playing for the fans and they were amazing."
So impressed was Iraola with Koumas when he arrived that the Spaniard claims within "days" he had determined that the 20-year-old was to be a part of his squad this season.
He isn't going to play every week — the Welsh international won't, for instance, be in the starting XI at Bournemouth on Sunday — but there is clearly a role for Koumas either from the off in games like these, or in cameos in the Premier League and the Champions League.
"No, I would have woken up! I would have thought I was dreaming," he admits when asked if he thought that would happen at the start of the summer.
"It's crazy. But I'm just really happy and very grateful for the opportunities I've been given. The past two years have been massive for my development. Going out on loan helped me to become the player I am today. I was able to impress the new manager in pre-season and it's all worked out well.
"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.
"It's definitely something the manager is trying to instill, but it's also me through and through. That's why I'm being trusted to go out there and do a job for the team."
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Koumas has been out at Stoke, Birmingham and Hull in the Championship. At no point, though, did he lose sight of where he ultimately wanted to be.
"I never showed a weak mentality about how the future would look for me at Liverpool," Koumas says. "I always had the drive that I would get here. The reason for going out on loan was to prepare for this moment. It all sort of worked out.
"I had a lot of players I liked watching. In terms of trying to be like someone, it would be Michael Owen. He was a bit before me, but I loved watching videos of him.
"I knew him from playing with my dad. Also, the likes of Gareth Bale. Those types of players — all about pace and finishing. 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."
Keep doing what he did against Tottenham, and plenty more appearances should follow. Iraola is a huge fan — and rightly so.