Grief in the Game: How Liverpool are Dealing with Tragic Loss

By Abdullah Mamaniyat

Grief is a strange thing. 

Recently on X, a prominent Liverpool fan suggested that supporters should stop singing Diogo Jota’s chant in the 20th minute of every game, arguing that it was having a detrimental effect on the players. Others countered that continuing the chant is a fitting tribute, a way of honouring Jota’s memory. Truthfully, neither side is right or wrong.

That is because there is no way of knowing how each player feels when it comes to reminders of Diogo. For some, it might bring comfort or motivation. For others, it may reopen the wound in a way that it does affect performances. Every training session and every matchday serves as a reminder that Diogo is no longer standing with them as he did last season.

Footballers Are Still Human

It is easy to forget that footballers, despite their status, are still human. They grieve, they struggle, and they carry emotional weight just like anyone else. Yet in football, the calendar never pauses. The season rolls on, and players are expected to perform - praised or scrutinised as usual.

Jota passed away on 3 July. His and brother André’s funeral was held just two days later, and by 8 July, the Liverpool squad had already started to report back for pre-season training. The players barely had a chance to process what had happened.

Former Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha, who lost his mother during his playing career, recently said: 

“The trust they have, the belief they have, the connection that they have during games - you lose it and things do become difficult. 

You’ll always remember the player because the fans will sing his name in the 20th minute. You’ll also remember the fact that when you get to the training ground, nobody’s going to sit in his locker. You’ll remember the fact that the number doesn’t exist anymore. You remember the moments in this stadium that maybe he had before.” 

His words echo the reality Liverpool’s players now face - a grief that lingers in the quiet moments between the matchday noise. 

Things Feel Different on the Pitch

It’s been evident on the pitch that something isn’t quite the same. Liverpool’s performances in the Premier League have stuttered with four domestic losses on the bounce. Several key players have shown noticeable dips in form. 

Captain Virgil van Dijk, who usually is a picture of composure and authority, has looked uncharacteristically shaky at times. Ibrahima Konaté, a very close friend of Jota’s, has been error-prone and less dominant than in previous campaigns. Even Mohamed Salah, who by his own standards, has struggled to influence games with the same consistency and decisiveness that has defined his Liverpool legacy. 

To those fans, players, pundits and neutrals who can emotionally detach themselves from the whole situation, such drop-offs might simply look like a footballing decline. But Liverpool fans, more than anyone, should recognise how raw the grief still is and may be a contributing factor to the club’s sluggish start.

Where mere football is concerned, Liverpool are also undergoing a seismic transition. Arne Slot is steering the team away from the familiar rhythms of Jürgen Klopp’s era, which still defined the side last season. The dressing room has changed too. New faces arrived, familiar ones departed - and many of those who remain are still carrying the grief of losing a colleague, teammate and friend.

Without the clutch moments that defined much of August and September, Liverpool’s current Premier League form might already have escalated into a full-blown crisis. The emotional and tactical upheavals seem to have collided, and taken their toll.

Remembering Fallen Foes 

Jota’s passing is not the only tragedy to hit the club this season. Former Liverpool Women’s head coach Matt Beard sadly passed away in September, followed by the death of Women’s first-team kit manager Jon Humble, who had only joined from Manchester United this summer. Former goalkeeper coach Jose Manuel Ochoterena, who arrived with Rafa Benitez in 2004, also died in October.

The football world is familiar with losses: Cheick Tioté, Davide Astori, Marc-Vivien Foé and Christian Atsu are just some of the active players to have died whilst playing for their clubs at the top level. Sadly, Jota’s death will not be the last. 

Liverpool Football Club is built on emotional connection. Renditions of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ aren’t just empty words. It is a heartfelt connection symbolised between fans, players, and the city itself. As the city moves forward and processes these tragic losses in such a short space of time, the question is not whether to sing or stay silent, but how to heal together through empathy.

Whether it was Diogo, whose passing prompted immense loss even among those who never met him, or whether it stems from personal experience, grief has a way of lingering just behind you as the world keeps on spinning.

If not for yourself, give others the empathy they deserve to quietly carry grief. A part of you will remain elsewhere, suspended in memory, just as many of Liverpool’s players will carry thoughts of Diogo Jota with them for the rest of their careers and beyond. This author understands this all too well, having lost someone close this year. This article is a reminder that grief can affect anyone, and when it does, it never truly leaves; it simply learns to coexist within you.