Arne Slot on Missing Diogo Jota

It will have been laborious to overlook Scottish captain Andy Robertson’s feedback on feeling the absence of Diogo Jota amidst the enjoyment of seeing his nation qualify for his or her first World Cup since 1998, and Arne Slot was requested about it in his pre-Forest press convention.

The Liverpool boss acknowledged each the influence of grief, and the way notions of the crew’s loss have formed inner and exterior narratives this season — and in addition how a lot Liverpool miss the participant in addition to the person. Regardless of all this, Slot needed to be clear that alongside Jota himself he and his males are pondering all the time of his household:

”We’re all the time judged — generally truthful, generally unfair. I noticed the interview as effectively dwell. I do know that is a matter for us, which I believe is totally regular. However in these moments of time we, I, all the time take into consideration how a lot it feels for his spouse and his youngsters, as a result of that’s so, so, a lot more durable for them than it’s for us. However that we miss the participant and the individual, that’s utterly clear.

”Possibly it tells you much more now we play Nottingham Forest; final season we have been 1-0 down at Forest and it solely took him one minute to attain the equalizer. So now I’m speaking concerning the participant that we miss for positive, as a result of this time we haven’t managed to come back again as many occasions as final season after being 1-0 down or a objective down.

“He undoubtedly performed his half in that final season. However that we additionally miss him as an individual, that’s utterly clear. However once more, his spouse and youngsters will miss him so, so, a lot extra. His dad and mom, by the way in which, as effectively.”

Regardless of the inklings of a story, the boss was agency in his perception that being reminded of Jota by the singing of his music is an efficient factor, and that loss shouldn’t be one thing that he or the media ought to attempt to create a story out of:

”I believe it’s good for us to [remember] him each time attainable as a result of, like I stated, the individual and the participant he was. But it surely’s inconceivable to measure what it does to the gamers after which to measure what it does to our outcomes. The very last thing I’d do is to make use of it as an excuse as a result of merely I don’t know.

“What I do know is that we miss the participant — that’s 100 per cent positive — and we additionally miss the individual, however I can’t measure what influence that has on our performances, not to mention on our outcomes. That’s inconceivable for me to say and we are going to by no means use it as an excuse as a result of that doesn’t really feel proper.”

Slot’s feedback appear to hunt to create distinctions in how that is mentioned: we will, he suggests, acknowledge the depth of the lack of the person himself, and the way grief could also be difficult and influence people and the collective; we will additionally clearly see how the crew misses the participant, who was good at nothing if not scoring essential objectives to alter outcomes. Doing these two issues ought to by no means, nonetheless, be twisted right into a discourse or an excuse to create a story about Liverpool’s kind. Not every little thing, Slot appears to say, must be about casting or side-stepping blame, some issues can simply be human.