Jason McAteer says that Liverpool will get ‘hurt’ if they keep doing one thing this season

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Liverpool have been rather lucky with their results from the 2025-26 season so far.

Indeed, the Reds are the only team in the Premier League to have won their first five games, but that doesn’t mean that luck hasn’t been on their side.

Arne Slot’s men have scored multiple late goals this term to earn them all three points, with their game against Everton on Saturday the only Premier League game that they haven’t had to rely on an injury-time goal.

Of course, a win is a win at the end of the day, but it would be much better for everyone involved if the Anfield outfit just won games in normal time.

At the moment, however, it’s unclear whether that’s going to happen with former Liverpool midfielder Jason McAteer saying that this is something that could come back and “hurt” his former club in the future.

Jason McAteer believes Liverpool’s players need to get used to one another quicker

One of the main reasons behind Liverpool’s lack of cohesion among their first-team squad is due to the number of changes they’ve undergone.

Several players have been sold and brought in this summer, with the likes of Alexander Isak among those expected to cause a stir at Anfield.

However, while live on beIN Sports before the Merseyside derby on Saturday, McAteer shared his thoughts on the Reds’ performances and claimed that Liverpool could end up getting “hurt” if they continue failing to see out games when 2-0 up.

“I think they [Liverpool] have been fortunate,” he said.

“I think to throw away 2-0 leads in some games and bring it back to 2-2, to get winners in four games of the five in the last minute will only come back to hurt you in some respect.

“So I think it was always going to be a bit of time for these players to bed in, but we’re sitting top of the table.”

Liverpool must capitalise on the amount of depth they now have among their ranks

One thing that Slot has done well this season is manage his players’ game time.

Now that Liverpool more or less have two top-class players in every position, it feels like they can rotate their ranks a lot more.

Indeed, the likes of Mohamed Salah, Alisson and Virgil van Dijk will likely start as many games as possible, but others such as Cody Gakpo, Alexis Mac Allister and even Ibrahima Konate may get more rest than they did last term.

One of the best things that Liverpool spending over £400million on new players has done is that it’s allowed players to be taken off in the 55th-60th minute without making the team lose quality.

This is going to be a key aspect of Liverpool’s ranks this term, especially if they want to win the Premier League and the Champions League.

Of course, only time will tell whether things end up working out like they should, but if they do, the Reds should be more than safe and well on their way to retaining the title.