Brave Andy Robertson exposed Liverpool’s biggest obstacle – maybe this would help

Even as one of his closest friends in the Liverpool squad, the timing of Andy Robertson’s poignant and emotional tribute to Diogo Jota on Tuesday night was startling.

Robertson deserves enormous credit for his honesty and willingness to show his vulnerability at that time but it does reinforce the idea that for all the tactical talk, the chatter about the summer turnover and the inability to counteract the more direct sides of the Premier League, Liverpool’s biggest obstacle so far this season is simply grief.

There is no road map to follow to put this sorrow in the rear-view mirror and it is not a linear process. This is a group who are having to be confronted with Jota’s death every time they sit down in the dressing room and see a space where the No.20 shirt resides.

With that in mind, is now the time for supporters to quietly discontinue the well-meaning tribute when the clock strikes 20 in each match?

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Even as one of his closest friends in the Liverpool squad, the timing of Andy Robertson’s poignant and emotional tribute to Diogo Jota on Tuesday night was startling, writes Paul Gorst

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Andy Robertson brought up his late, former Liverpool team-mate Diogo Jota, unprompted, during his brave and beautiful interview after he captained Scotland to the World Cup finals(Image: Alex Livesey – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)

Even as one of his closest friends in the Liverpool squad, the timing of Andy Robertson’s poignant and emotional tribute to Diogo Jota on Tuesday night was startling. The Reds’ vice-captain had just skippered Scotland to their first World Cup since 1998 in glorious and dramatic style when he, without a prompt, turned the conversation towards his old mate ‘MacJota’, the nickname given to the popular Portuguese for being the “most British foreign player” he had ever met.

“I’ve hid it well but today I’ve been in bits,” Robertson revealed in his remarkably candid BBC interview. “I know the age I’m at, this is my last chance of a World Cup, and I couldn’t get my mate Diogo Jota out of my head today. We spoke so much together about this World Cup.

“He missed out on (2022 World Cup in) Qatar through injury and I missed out because Scotland never went. We always discussed what it’d be like going to this World Cup and I know he’ll be somewhere smiling over me tonight.

“I couldn’t get him out of my head the whole day so I was in a bit of trouble in my room. But I hid it well from the boys and I’m just so glad it’s ended up this way.”

It was the sort of post-match admission that only endeared Robertson further to a Liverpool fanbase who already view him as a modern-day great and a legendary figure at Anfield.

Virtually to a man, he is the finest left-back of the club’s Premier League era but those who know him personally speak of an even better person.

“I just go back to the Qatar World Cup when we were on a training camp in Dubai,” Robertson later added to Sky Sports. “Obviously Jots missed it through injury. I missed it due to missing out in the play-offs.

“We always discussed how it would feel playing in a World Cup for your country. Obviously it’s probably a bit more likely that it was going to happen for him in terms of Portugal than Scotland.

“As soon as I woke up I just couldn’t get him out of my head. I couldn’t get him out of my head all day. I think I hid it well from the lads probably, but being in the room, all I could think about was him.