I continue to be somewhat flabbergasted about the extent to which people have forgotten about what happened to Diogo Jota in the summer. More accurately, the extent to which people are refusing to take into account how what happened to the player and his brother might be impacting this season. I very rarely hear pundits mention it when Liverpool’s campaign to date is being analysed, in spite of the fact that it might be the single biggest influence on what is going on. One of their teammates, their friends, died in utterly horrific circumstances. Circumstances that I think it must be almost impossible for those that knew him not to think about when he enters their mind, which must be all the time. They didn’t get to say goodbye, instead just being left with his absence felt overwhelmingly every time they take to the pitch. In the changing room, they’ll know where he would have been sat and what jokes he would have made as well as when he would’ve made them.
I’m an Arsenal fan. But I’m not going to laugh about the Liverpool team right now. Yes, Slot has made mistakes, but the squad will be struggling due to what happened to Diogo Jota. They’re people, and football is just their job, that’s all. Give them time, be nice, or say nothing.
— FPL Hippie (@fplhippie.bsky.social) 22 November 2025 at 18:14
On the pitch, they will instinctively turn to the bench when we need a goal, only to be reminded in brutal fashion that he can no longer provide it. Even when they turn up at the AXA for training, they will be all too aware of his absence. Time will heal the wounds, of course, but anyone who has ever lost someone will know that it doesn’t happen quickly. I have friends who still talk of the loved ones that they lost years ago. We are coming up to Christmas, when all of the players will be with their families and acutely aware of the fact that Diogo and André’s families are going to be without them for the first time. In a lot of cases, when someone suffers a loss, they turn to work to help them get over it. The Liverpool players who knew Diogo can’t do that, so it’s little wonder that they aren’t coping well with the smallest form of adversity that they suffer in a match. People have said the players look broken and defeated when they concede. Is it any wonder why that might be the case?
How’s Your Luck?
I’ve written recently about how people hate discussing luck in football. In reality, though, it is a crucial part of the game in general, which should be acknowledged more often. It is really bad luck for Liverpool to have had to face Sean Dyche’s Nottingham Forest instead of the dysfunctional one that we saw under Nuno Espirito Santo and then, briefly, Ange Postecoglou. Similarly, we had a goal disallowed against Manchester City for Andy Robertson allegedly being stood in front of Gianluigi Donnarumma, which it was later decided should’ve been given. As a direct result of that, Murillo’s goal, for which he was clearly blocking Alisson Becker’s view significantly more than Robertson was blocking Donnarumma’s, was allowed to stand. Up until that moment, the Reds had actually been playing well, passing the ball around crisply and moving Forest from side to side in the search for an opening goal. Then we conceded and the players fell apart.
Check notes…
Robinson offside
Forest player offsideRobinson ducks
Forest player ducksLiverpool goal NO
Forest goal YesNothing to see here. #LFC
— Old Git Victor (@oldgitvictor.bsky.social) 22 November 2025 at 15:53
Had the goal stood against Manchester City, then it’s entirely possible that we would have got something out of that match, because 1-1 is an awful lot better to take in at half-time than being 2-0 down. Similarly, if Forest’s opener had been disallowed, then we might have continued to play in the same manner that we had up until that point and opened the scoring. Luck is an important part of football, whether people like to admit it or not. Liverpool’s luck has been atrocious this season, which Arne Slot will be all too aware of. That isn’t to suggest that the Dutchman hasn’t made any mistakes, of course. I’ll come on to talk about what Slot has been getting wrong, but with just a tad more fortune, the table looks a lot friendlier than it does right now. The players are struggling with the mentality needed to cope with adversity, for entirely understandable reasons, but when you chuck a wealth of bad luck on top of that, it’s little wonder we’ve been struggling for any consistency.
Slots of Mistakes
From the moment that he arrived at Anfield, Arne Slot has made a few mistakes. During his first season, his refusal to have any faith in his squad players was a big part of the reason why our campaign fell apart around the time of the League Cup final. Players like Harvey Elliott, who Jürgen Klopp had said he wished he’d played more, weren’t really given a look in. The same is true of Federico Chiesa. This season, he’s persisted with decisions such as putting Dominik Szoboszlai in the right-back position when needed, in spite of the fact that he’s been our player of the season in midfield. The coaching hasn’t looked good. There’s no getting away from that. The players look like strangers in virtually every department, which was excusable back in August, given the fact that a lot of them were strangers, but we’re approaching December and that excuse is wearing thin. Was John Heitinga really the key to it all? Is Giovanni van Bronckhorst the issue now?
The only positive I felt when Jürgen left was that I wouldn’t be as emotionally invested in whoever comes next. That said, I’d rather see Arne Slot turn things around than see him gone. Either way, looking forward to Liverpool playing better and winning.
— Harald Torjussen (@ht84.bsky.social) 22 November 2025 at 19:54
Ultimately, of course, the buck stops with the manager. Neither Heitinga nor van Bronckhorst decide what the players need to be working on, nor do they pick the team or choose the tactics. Liverpool lost six Premier League games in the 58 prior to the current run, which has seen us lose six of our last seven. That kind of run is one that managers of almost any club will struggle to survive. I’ve seen some people suggest that Slot has constantly been coming up with excuses for our defeats, but he said after yesterday’s match, “If things go well or things go bad, it’s my responsibility.” That doesn’t sound like someone making up excuses. I think it sounds like someone at a loss to figure out why things are as bad as they are for him and his players. When Andy Robertson spoke about the loss of Diogo in the wake of Scotland’s qualification for the World Cup, it was clear that the players are still suffering his death. I’m not sure a new manager is all it takes to fix that.
