Liverpool go to work and Diogo Jota is not there. Why wouldn’t that affect them? | Max Rushden

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OK, well, we know the answer to that one.But for a club of Liverpool’s size, given how good they were last season, mini-crisis seems about right. While the news cycle moves on so fast and our pie chart of compassion that we reserve for beyond our own bubble focused on that for a few days before going back to Gaza, Ukraine, ICE, the Manchester terror attack, Liverpool’s players continued to go to work without their mate being there.It is impossible to know how each player and staff member is feeling on any given day and there is a great deal of projection.

I live exactly the same when I was a player 20 years ago.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“It’s not easy for the players, it’s not easy for the club, it’s not easy for the manager when you arrive at the training ground and you see every day that place empty. Even during games there’s going to moments when they play a ball and think: ‘Ah well Diogo …’ If Salah’s cried six games ago in front of the Kop it means that just everything isn’t all right now.”Liverpool fans hold up a banner in tribute to Diogo Jota.

At a practical level, if you bring up Jota’s death, it is hard to do it in 10 seconds and then move on to Dominik Szoboszlai’s difficulties at right-back. Some of the highs and the lows that come with it didn’t really feel the same any more.” And that’s half a career; with Jota and Liverpool right now, it is three months.So whatever Liverpool achieve, if it’s something or if it’s nothing, even if we don’t mention it every time we discuss their games, even if it isn’t the reason they go on to do whatever they go on to do, we should not forget that a few weeks ago they lost not just a brilliant footballer, but more importantly, they lost a friend.