Liverpool travel to newly-promoted Ipswich for Friday night’s Premier League clash (kick-off 8pm). After lacklustre draws in the opening two games of the new season, some fans are already getting restless and demanding improvement, particularly at the back, with a defence that is looking unsteady at times. Hopefully, Andoni Iraola will turn things around at Portman Road.
We crunch the numbers ahead of the big game…
Ipswich Town have lost their last four Premier League games against Liverpool across the 2001-02 and 2024-25 seasons, conceding 17 goals and scoring just once.
Liverpool are unbeaten in their last 20 Premier League matches against newly promoted sides (W15 D5) but the last side to beat them were a Bournemouth side managed by current Ipswich boss Gary O’Neil in March.
Liverpool are winless in their last six Premier League games (D4 L2). Only once before have they gone 7+ matches without winning in the competition, a run of 11 from November 2002 to January 2003 under Gerard Houllier.
Liverpool have drawn 2-2 in their first two Premier League matches in 2026-27. The Reds have only conceded 2+ goals in their first three games once before in the competition, doing so in 2012-13 in Brendan Rodgers’ first three games in charge.
Although he has only created two chances in two Premier League games this season, Liverpool’s Florian Wirtz has made 11 passes that have broken the defensive line, with only Bruno Fernandes making more (13).
Alexander Isak has four goals in just two Premier League appearances against Ipswich Town, all for Newcastle in 2024-25. Three of those were as a hat-trick at Portman Road, making him the joint-second top scorer there that season, behind only Liam Delap (6).
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Iraola did say in pre-season that his new Liverpool team is a work in progress and needs a few more weeks for the system to work as he wants.
While the first two drawn games, against Newcastle and Nottingham Forest respectively, were disappointing, there have been signs of quality football, especially from some of the players that have been brought into the squad over the summer.
Jeremy Jacquet and Victor Munoz in particular have been excellent. Hopefully we will get to see what Bradley Barcola can do very soon.
A win at Ipswich should silence the critics, for now at least, and we’ll be able to then concentrate on next week’s Champions League opener against Atletico Madrid at Anfield.
