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

At the final whistle, victory secured, Andoni Iraola embraced both his current players and those he guided to new heights at Bournemouth last season. Liverpool are not yet the overwhelming, suffocating force Iraola hopes they become but they did enough to claim three points here, Alexander Isak capping a peculiar performance with a simple finish. 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.

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 on the pitch side before the warm up and Dominik Szoboszlai and Milos Kerkez shared an embrace with Alex Toth, their Hungary teammate. Kerkez replaced Kostas Tsimikas at left-back in one of three changes from their stalemate with Fulham.

It was fitting that the bass of Never Tear Us Apart sounded over the speakers as Iraola walked along the front row of the home dugout, shaking hands with his successor Marco Rose’s staff. Iraola’s body of work, improving season on season and eclipsing Bournemouth’s points record in successive campaigns led him to this point. The transition was so smooth Rose and Iraola spent an hour together on Iraola’s last day at Bournemouth’s training base, only stopping because Tiago Pinto, Bournemouth’s sporting director, interrupted to remind them there were other things on the agenda.

All the niceties, Iraola said, could wait until afterwards. Pablo de la Torre, his fitness coach who was part of his staff at Bournemouth, made that clear within the opening 30 seconds, wresting the ball away from Adam Smith to delay the hosts taking a quick throw-in. Bournemouth were intent on building on Thursday’s history-making victory in the Basque Country and had the best chance of the first half. Iraola marched from the away technical area back towards the dugout after Alisson’s smart right-hand save prevented Evanilson’s front-post flick from squeezing in at his near post.

Szoboszlai dropped a typically vicious free-kick wide of Djordje Petrovic’s post and Petrovic saved a deflected Bradley Barcola shot with his legs, but Liverpool spent much of the first half containing Bournemouth’s threats; they attacked from all angles, as Iraola knew they would.

Early in the second half, Szoboszlai was booked for a foul on Alex Scott but Liverpool showed glimpses of their quality. “Yes, yes,” Iraola said, encouraging Isak as the Sweden striker made tracks down the right flank, only for his cross to end up with the ball flying towards the scaffolding structure in a corner of the ground, part of Bournemouth’s ongoing stadium upgrade. Florian Wirtz saw a disguised pass for Isak cut out and Bournemouth flew forward, the again-impressive Jérémy Jacquet making it difficult for Ryan Christie to connect with a low cross at the front post. Christie chopped inside Szoboszlai close to the touchline and then Scott switched play with a pinged diagonal pass.

Bournemouth seemed to be growing in confidence but then Gakpo easily bypassed Adrien Truffert, usually such a dependable performer since signing from Rennes last summer. Gakpo crossed from the right and while James Hill dived in to extinguish the threat of Wirtz at the front post, the ball dropped to an unmarked Isak on the edge of the six-yard box to stroke the ball in. From there Bournemouth seemed to run out of juice and Liverpool eked out victory. Iraola pointed his players towards the scoreboard after they won a free-kick on halfway and, seconds later, it was job done.