Andy Robertson's sobering words offer harrowing reminder over Liverpool judgements

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The final Blood Red column of the season focuses on Andy Robertson, Liverpool's poor season and why the impact of Diogo Jota's death cannot be overlooked so easilyPerhaps liberated by the sense of finality about it all, Andy Robertson has been speaking more freely than ever this week.The finest Liverpool left-back in a generation leaves as a club legend and an emotional afternoon is anticipated when he - alongside another icon, Mohamed Salah - departs on Sunday, once the last game of the season, at home to Brentford, has been concluded.As Anfield afternoons go in late May, the event won't quite hit the heights of last year, when the Reds lifted the league title in front of their fans for the first time in 35 years.But that the day itself, save for the ovations reserved for Salah and Robertson, will generally be a low-key affair sums up what has been a tough campaign for the club.Some jeopardy does technically still exist for Champions League hopes in the form of an unthinkable six-goal swing with Bournemouth, but that is also oddly fitting for a troublesome term where anything that could go wrong has tended to do so.We're about to find out if fate will cruelly intervene once more this weekend but even this iteration of Liverpool surely cannot stumble from here.And in the rush to analyse and assess where the problems truly lie at Anfield right now, some matter-of-fact assertions from Robertson this week cut through so much of the noise.For many, 20 defeats is unforgivable and Arne Slot's brand of football has quite rightly been questioned at various junctures.But for Robertson, when asked where he thinks the cracks started to show in an interview with a handful of publications that included the ECHO this week, the Scotland skipper had a more straightforward, if infinitely more harrowing explanation."We can’t hide away from it," Robertson said, referring to the horrendous death of the much-loved Diogo Jota last July. "And it is not an excuse, but what we went through in the summer no team will ever go through.

Football didn’t matter."In a separate interview with Arsenal legend Ian Wright, Robertson expanded on the topic, revealing: "After the highs of the end of last season, the first time I saw the lads after the trophy [parade] day, we were on a plane to one of our mates' funerals. How fair has it all been?As Robertson's admissions reveal, grief is not linear and the players' wealth and status as elite sportsmen have done little to protect them from the distress of their friend's death.The true scale of its effect probably won't be felt for years and it is a simple fact that Liverpool were the only club in the Premier League to have counsellors at their training base last summer during preparations for this season.Cody Gakpo did his utmost to present the idea of the squad being a tower of strength to those outside of it who needed support when he spoke to the ECHO on the club's pre-season tour of Japan and Virgil van Dijk has only hinted at how impactful Jota's death has been during the many, many post-match interviews he has conducted since.So it was left to Caoimhin Kelleher, afforded the distance by a summer move to Brentford, to offer up the most accurate summary for why Premier League champions Liverpool were so off the boil in an interview earlier this season.“I don’t think this season is even important from a football aspect for them, to be honest," the Ireland goalkeeper said.

“For Liverpool, I don’t think it’s a season about football, really, for me."And therein lies the issue that those at Liverpool have left unspoken, feeling unable to publicly articulate it themselves.It is also why the mitigation for Slot's own performance is viewed more sympathetically within the club's ownership structure than by the sprawling, worldwide fanbase, many of whom have seemingly lost faith in a man who, just 12 months ago, was parading the championship across the city streets in front of one million supporters.Robertson echoed the general stance at Liverpool that a poor season on the pitch cannot be excused by Jota's passing. Robertson's sobering words this week should reinforce the idea that judgement on Slot's Liverpool should at least be withheld for now.