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Iraola Finally Gets His Home Breakthrough as Liverpool Edge Brighton

October 26, 2026 · Ben Sullivan · Posted 1 day ago

How Liverpool Ground Out A Different Kind Of Win Over Brighton

Three points are three points, and on this particular Saturday at Anfield, Liverpool found a way to collect them without controlling the game for long stretches of it. A 2-0 win over Brighton, decided by a four-minute burst either side of the half-hour mark, told us plenty about where this Liverpool side sits right now under Andoni Iraola, and arguably told us just as much about what still needs sharpening before the business end of the season arrives. Coming off a positive midweek result in Europe, this was always going to be a different kind of test against a Brighton side that likes to keep the ball and probe patiently rather than rush into things.

A Breakthrough Afternoon For Iraola

This was the head coach’s first Premier League win on home soil, and it arrived against a Brighton side that, on paper, plays exactly the kind of possession based, technically neat football that has occasionally given Liverpool problems this season. Florian Wirtz opened the scoring before Alexander Isak doubled the lead in quick succession, and from that point on the afternoon became less about chasing a third goal and more about managing a one sided territorial battle that Brighton were allowed to win without ever truly threatening Alisson Becker’s goal in any meaningful sense. It was not the most eye catching twenty minutes of football Anfield has seen this season, but it was enormously effective, and effectiveness is exactly what a head coach in his first months at the club needs on the board more than style points.

That is the part of this result worth sitting with. Liverpool did not need to be the better team for long periods to walk away with all three points. Brighton had the majority of possession, especially after the interval, racking up something in the region of seventeen attempts on goal across the ninety minutes, yet only one of those efforts actually tested the goalkeeper. A back line built around Virgil van Dijk, Jeremy Jacquet and an increasingly assured Ronald Araujo simply refused to be dragged out of position, and when it mattered Alisson was rarely required to make a save of real difficulty. Brighton’s underlying numbers suggested a reasonably productive afternoon in possession, but final third quality is a different conversation entirely, and Liverpool’s shape made sure of that.

Isak’s Quiet Consistency Deserves More Attention

Buried a little in the aftermath of another job done scoreline is the fact that Isak has now scored in three straight Premier League outings for Liverpool. It is the kind of run that tends to go unnoticed when a forward is not racking up hat tricks, but consistency in front of goal across a long Premier League campaign is a far better indicator of a striker settling in than any single eye catching individual performance. For context on just how significant a run like this can be for him personally, it is worth remembering his history of extended scoring streaks before he arrived at Anfield.

If Isak can turn this into something closer to the extended streak referenced above, Liverpool’s attacking output stops being a weekly guessing game and starts becoming something far more reliable, which is exactly what a title chasing squad needs from its main striker heading into a congested winter fixture list. A player capable of scoring regularly without needing the team to dominate matches is an extremely valuable commodity, and right now that is precisely what Isak is giving Iraola.

The Bigger Picture Beyond The Scoreline

Iraola made his changes relatively early, bringing on Trey Nyoni for Wirtz just after the hour before Lewis Koumas and Rio Ngumoha replaced Isak and Bradley Barcola with just over a quarter of the match remaining. Kostas Tsimikas came on for Milos Kerkez late on to help see the game out. None of those substitutions were about chasing the game, they were about protecting a lead and managing fatigue, which is a very different exercise to the one Liverpool have often found themselves in this season, and a welcome change of circumstance for a head coach still settling into the job.

The uncomfortable truth is that Brighton’s spell of pressure, particularly after the break, is not something Liverpool can simply shrug off every week and expect to get away with it. Conceding that much territory to a mid table side invites danger against better equipped opposition, and there were moments when the back four looked stretched even if the end product from Brighton rarely matched the volume of their attacking play. Iraola and his coaching staff will know this was a result that papered over a performance which still has clear room for growth, particularly in how the team manages the ball once it has a lead to protect.

Even so, there is something to be said for a team that can win in more than one way. Earlier in the season Liverpool had to dig results out through late goals and sheer stubbornness, and this was a different test altogether, one about holding a lead rather than chasing one. Passing that test, even slightly unconvincingly, matters more at this stage of the campaign than the manner in which it was passed. A clean sheet, two goals from two different players, and a first home league win for the head coach is a solid platform to build from, provided the lessons about conceding so much territory are actually taken on board before the next tricky away trip arrives on the calendar. Fifth place and climbing is not a bad place to be while those details get ironed out.

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