Liverpool manager Arne Slott says his side miss Diogo Jota as a player and a person but will never use his death as an excuse for poor results.
After Scotland’s World Cup qualifier win over Denmark, captain Andy Robertson said before kick-off that he was lost in his thoughts about his former team-mate, who died in a car crash with his brother Andre Silva last July.
“I couldn’t get my team-mate Diogo Jota out of my mind today,” Liverpool left-back Robertson said.
“We’ve talked so much about going to the World Cup because he missed the last game against Portugal and I missed the game against Scotland. I know he’ll be smiling at me today.”
“I saw the interview live and I know it’s a problem for us and that’s completely normal,” Slot said Friday.
“I think it’s good for us to remind ourselves of him every time we can because of who he was as a person and as a player.
“But it’s impossible to measure the impact it has on the players and then the impact it has on our results.
“The last thing I can do is use that as an excuse simply because I don’t know. What I do know is that we miss the player. That’s 100% certain, we miss him too.”
“But I can’t measure how that affects our performance, let alone the results. I can’t tell you that.
“We will never use that as an excuse because we don’t feel it’s right.”
Liverpool manager Arne Slott speaks with Diogo Jota.
Asked whether this should be taken into account when assessing Liverpool’s recent performances, which have seen them lose seven of their last 10 games, Slott said: “We get assessed all the time, sometimes it’s fair, sometimes it’s unfair.
“But at this moment I also think about how his wife and his children must feel, because it is clear that we miss the player and the person, even though it is much harder for them than ours.
“We play Nottingham Forest (on Saturday). Last season we lost 1-0 to Forest and it only took a minute for him to equalize.
“This time we haven’t come back as much as we did last season after being 1-0 down or scoring a goal and he certainly played his part last season.
“Again, his wife and children will miss him even more.”
Slot’s hopes of arresting a slide down the pitch were not helped by muscle injuries to playmaker Florian Wirtz and right-back Connor Bradley. The latter is set to be out for three weeks. But goalkeeper Alisson Becker faces Forest again on Saturday after being sidelined for eight games with a hamstring problem.
Liverpool’s other right-back, Jeremie Frimpong, is still two weeks removed from fitness, which poses a problem for Slot, who has already put midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai there several times this season.
However, the Hungary captain has been the best player in a more advanced role, so it could mean Curtis Jones or Joe Gomez, who has completed 90 minutes on just two occasions since Boxing Day, could feature.
