LASK v Liverpool FC - UEFA Champions League 2026/27 League Phase MD2
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Lewis Koumas is the man of the hour at Liverpool after unexpectedly becoming a first-team regular under Andoni Iraola this season.
Having come back from two loan spells in the Championship last term, not a single supporter had expected Koumas to be a legitimate option for Iraola, but the head coach immediately decided something different.
Suddenly, the 21-year-old is winning friends everywhere, with his goal against LASK on Wednesday the crowning moment of his season so far. To those who have been watching him for longer, though, it is less of a surprise to see him make his mark. Robbie Fowler counts himself among those long-term fans, and has now revealed that Koumas actually first arrived on the scene as a controlling central midfield player.
With Szoboszlai, Isak and Gakpo still doubts, is this how you would line up against Brentford? 🤔 Gravenberch is suspended for this one
@freddie Go ask Birmingham, Hull or Stoke fans what they think of him (they've seen much more of him than we have) and come back to me mate!!
It was so tight, it was just unlucky! Very harsh on a player who’s not had many chances due to him having two £100m+ strikers ahead of him and now wingers who cost the same! Think he’s been brilliant and working hard only adds to that, I’m a big Koumas fan. Gotta lead the line for me, deserves it!
Brilliant is a stretch. Runs around a lot and scored against a poor side after three goes. Should never have been offside on the other two, if he were good enough then he wouldn’t have been!
Koumas used to be a midfielder
As the son of a former Premier League footballer, Koumas potentially did not need any help joining the Liverpool academy. His dad, Jason, was highly rated in the youth team in the 1990s and likely knows plenty of people still at the club.
Nevertheless, Fowler says that Koumas Jr caught his while he was watching his own son play for Wirral Schoolboys, leading to a conversation with head of the academy Alex Inglethorpe.
“I like him,” he said when asked about Koumas on his new podcast, ‘We’ll Have A Look’, alongside former Liverpool teammate Steve McManaman.
“I don’t know if a lot of people know this, but he didn’t start off as a forward. He played with my lad for Wirral Schoolboys, but he was a central midfielder who controlled the game and he was brilliant as a young kid and you always knew.”
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“In fact I remember saying to Alex Inglethorpe, who’s the head of the academy just to have a little look at this kid. I’m not saying he’s there because of me, of course not, but I always knew he was going to be a player. You can tell, can’t you.”
With the episode airing before Koumas’ Champions League goal, and just after his surprise first Premier League start against Man City, Fowler was pushed by McManaman to give an assessment of Koumas as a striker.
“What I like about Lewis Koumas, there’s no airs or graces about him, he’s going to put a shift in, he’s going to make the defenders know that they’re in a game, because that’s what he knows he needs to do to get into a team,” Fowler said.
“He’s not going to play in midfield because obviously the players that they’ve bought and the money that they’ve spent, likewise with forwards. But he knows he’s got to go in there and he’s got to be a handful, he’s got to run the channels, make sure the defenders know they’re in a game. The biggest compliment you can pay him is that he’s never let you down when he’s played.”
Though it may well have been a decade or more since Koumas was playing as a midfielder, it is interesting to know that he used to do it – and do it so well. Liverpool are not blessed with huge amounts of midfield options right now, so if injuries and suspension bite further, maybe Iraola will be tempted to reignite a role reversal for the Welshman.