Liverpool players ‘didn’t care about football’ after Diogo Jota death, Andy Robertson admits | OneFootball

Andy Robertson has revealed that Liverpool “didn't care about football” last season following the death of his former team-mate and close friend Diogo Jota.

The Scotland captain said the whole club was “heartbroken” and consumed by grief in a year where they also underperformed on the pitch.

Jota died in a road accident last July that also killed his brother, Andre Silva, and Robertson has now opened up on the impact of his passing.

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Robertson left Liverpool this summer after nine years at Anfield (PA)

“You’ve just lost one of your best mates in the changing room,” said Roberton, who joined Tottenham this summer, in a clip shared by Stick to Football podcast.

“All footballers, we have that edge don’t we? And I think last season we lost the edge, when I look back on it now.

“We lost that determination a little bit because there were times where we were going like, well what’s the point?

“Look at what Jota’s family are going through, look at his kids. We were grieving. He was a team-mate, he was a friend. It was incredibly difficult.

“The week before he died I was at his wedding. That’s one of the most difficult things you’ll ever go through.

“Seeing him on the happiest day of his life and then the next week you’re seeing his family torn apart.”

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Robertson was close friends with Jota, who died at the age of 28 (Getty)

Robertson said the environment around Liverpool was particularly difficult for the new signings who arrived at the club that summer, such as Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz.

“What we went through, it was horrendous,” Robertson said.

“The new signings, they’re coming into a club that is heartbroken and that’s where I felt sorry for those guys.

“They’d signed for big money and it took them months to settle in because we didn’t care about football. That was the truth of it.”

Liverpool started last season as champions but lost nine games out of 12 between September and November and ultimately finished fifth in the league, with head coach Arne Slot sacked.

Robertson spoke of Jota last November immediately after leading Scotland to the World Cup and said it had been both of their dreams to go to the tournament after missing out in 2022.

The Portuguese’s widow and the mother of his three children, Rute Cardoso, wrote a letter to Robertson before the World Cup urging him to carry Jota’s dream with him in North America.