The Champions League is officially back, and so with it is Liverpool’s uncanny new taste for snatching victories in the dying moments.Liverpool 3-2 Atletico MadridChampions League (1) | AnfieldSeptember 17, 2025Goals: Robertson 4, Salah 6′, Van Dijk 90+2′; Llorente 45+3′, 81′1. The added-time tyrants ride againTo go two goals up in a Champions League fixture at home with hardly six minutes on the clock, and not go on to win the match…that isn’t good enough.It was very, very nearly the reality that we were all staring down the barrel of. It wouldn’t have been doom and gloom – it’s the opening match of a long campaign in a renewed format – but it absolutely would have felt like a wasted evening of labour for Liverpool.Right now there is an embarrassment of riches sequenced through a team which are clearly showing they are a lot better than everybody – but they’re not quite getting it done. Until the fourth official’s board goes up that is. Chances are coming and passing, held breath and surplus hesitation.Liverpool started this match at 100mph and in truth could’ve had a hatful more goals as the match ebbed on, even as the tempo and intensity dipped. But opportunities were frittered and streetwise teams like Diego Simeone’s Atletico – arguably the masters of the dark arts – will always capitalise where possible.Right now Liverpool are like a fancy new Swiss army knife. State of the art, capable of doing everything and anything. Flick a different lever and out pops and new piece of tech or a handy appendage.The thing is, said Swiss army knife can’t just be marvelled at – it now needs to be used to maximum devastation and deflate football matches within the hour.Snatching victories from the jaws of defeat is always thrilling and very much blockbuster, but it can’t become the new norm. 2. Isak arrivesQuite literally. He’s here, boots on the ground, famous red shirt across his back.Was this the dream debut Alexander Isak particularly wanted? Probably not, to a large degree. But the most expensive footballer Liverpool have ever parted with cash for is up and running.Just a few weeks ago it seemed likely that we wouldn’t be talking nor writing about Isak as a Liverpool player – but the moment is upon us. This was a good maiden outing, under the Anfield lights with the Champions League anthem ringing in the ears.It was a good call to thrust the Swedish hitman in from the start. Super-sub cameos are all fine and well, but there was a game of football to be won from the off and this lad needs to get some serious football under his belt ASAP.The signs were good. His football brain is second to none; the sharpness is already there in flashes; the understanding of space within the final third is a delight to witness.Numerous interchanges with fellow new boy Florian Wirtz gave us all cause to salivate. Nimble touches, control on the turn, a deft back-heeled through ball at the first time of asking.Already Isak has shown why Liverpool didn’t so much as flinch when it became clear there was a chance of getting him. He makes chances, conjures space and gets shots on target. Enough shots on targets means goals – lots of them, cumulatively, and goals win football matches.It’s forever the bottom line. Now the rollercoaster ride begins; welcome to the new era of the No. 9. 3. Experience and Liverpool’s biggest signings prevailWho else? It’s the perennial rhetorical question. It never needs an answer, year upon year and season after season. It’s always Mo Salah and it will always be Mo Salah.The Egyptian King has had a slow and very much underwhelming start to the season, no question. But the Champions League comes with the ‘experience’ tag for a reason, and these are the fixtures in which your big names and scoreline deciders come to the fore.Salah was built for this, and his electric start coming at the same time as his first outing with Liverpool’s £125 million new boy was no random coincidence.He plays heavily off both intuition and emotion, sensing that the Reds had to make an immediate impact in the competition he is now most desperate, above all others, to win.It feels like a cliche but it’s not, these matches need composed, measured heads and a knack for interpreting where to be and when. Andy Robertson standing solid throughout and getting the telling touch for a bizarre opener was also down to no stroke of luck. The old boys turned out and got the job done.A whole host of talent arrived in the summer, one of if not the best transfer window in Liverpool Football Club’s history – yet the biggest new signings were at the club the all along.Virgil van Dijk and Salah needed an evening like this. The Egyptian was desperately unlucky not to add a second to his tally after rattling the post, while captain colossus took the fixture into his own dominant hands and bent the outcome to his will.Getting these two tied down to new deals was worth every penny. 4. Gravenberch is omnipresentIf anybody thought last season’s coming-of-age of Ryan Gravenberch was a flash in the pan, or merely a feel-good story, think again.The metamorphosis is complete, this lad has turned into a seriously accomplished footballer. Versatile and with seemingly minimal weaknesses, the Dutchman patrolled the Anfield turf this evening like a man who owned the joint.Every pass, tackle and through-ball appeared to be signed off by Gravenberch, Liverpool’s metronome who was both making and allowing things to happen.Nothing passed him by and he was both a pivotal creative and preventative outlet. Arne Slot now has the royal privilege of a combination of midfielders who can each take it upon themselves to dictate a match.Get the balance right with rest and recovery and this season could soon turn brutally prolific once the engine room starts turning over. 5. Slot is learningAfter confessing to some shortfalls last season despite unprecedented maiden-season success, Slot admitted that he wished he had rotated his options more in the early months.The previous campaign saw the Reds blister through the entire Champions League ‘league stage’, only to looked gassed against eventual winners PSG.It was an immediate lesson for Slot to learn, and this game we saw the first signs of tweaks from day one.The exchange of Isak and Hugo Ekitike was always a given, but the injection of Aleixs Mac Allister to keep the midfield both fresh and of a high calibre was clever. Similarly with the switch-out of both full-backs, and the trust placed in young starlet Rio Ngumoha in taking a Champions League bow.Liverpool have the options across the board this season and Slot has already shown a change of tact in keeping the deck fresh while placing the next card down.