Praise for Slot for the way he dealt with Jota's tragic death | Goal.com

Published on 23 Sep 2026 | Reading time: 2 minutes

Andy Robertson speaks candidly in The Overlap about Liverpool's difficult season last year. The defender, who has since moved to Tottenham Hotspur, explained the huge impact Diogo Jota's death had on the squad.

"Last season we lost the fire and the belief," sighed the left-back, who won the title twice with Liverpool and lifted the Champions League. "We thought: what does it really matter? When you saw what Diogo's family were going through. When you saw his children. We were grieving, because he was our friend."

He also pointed out that the new signings walked into an incredibly difficult situation. Liverpool spent huge sums on, among others, Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak, but retaining the league title was never on the cards.

"I feel guilty towards the new players. They came to a club whose heart was broken. These players made big-money moves to Liverpool. But it took months before they found their place here, because at that moment we just did not care about football. That was the truth," reflected the departed Robertson on an extremely difficult year.

Robertson was very close to Jota. "The week before he died, I was at his wedding. It is one of the hardest things you will ever go through: seeing him on the happiest day of his life, and then the following week seeing his family torn apart."

For Robertson, Arne Slot handled the whole situation very well. "We talked a lot. The manager was really good, to be honest. Our pre-season was not really much of a pre-season, because Arne said: if you do not want to train, you do not train. That was his attitude during pre-season."

"We had a psychologist who was already working at the club. He set up groups where you could have a coffee and talk for a while. We did that quite often, and I think that helped," said Robertson.

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