The Reds' Recent Difficulties: The Ways Diogo Jota's Absence Continues to Affect the Team

Just a few weeks back, the Merseyside club seemed set to claim back-to-back Premier League titles and possibly a further Champions League crown. The team's capacity to win without optimal displays felt like the hallmark of true title-winners.

However, subsequently the momentum shifted. The Anfield side continued with average showings and began losing matches. At the same time, Arsenal, known for their resolute defense and strength in depth, started closing the distance at the top.

Defining a Crisis in Modern Football

Does a trio of straight defeats constitute a crisis? As with most football debates, it depends entirely on your definition of the central word. Is Paul Scholes elite? What does "world class" actually mean? Is the Birmingham club a major team? What constitutes "big"? Is the Old Trafford outfit back? Well, maybe that's one we can answer.

For a club of this club's size and last season's excellence, a minor crisis appears a fair assessment. On a recent broadcast, former striker Neil Mellor was questioned how many losses in a row would cause panic. His reply was six. At present, they are halfway to that particular point.

Pinpointing the On-Pitch Issues

There are obvious footballing problems. Assimilating new additions like Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong, who provide a different style to departed key players Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, presents a difficulty. Similarly, blending in a gifted playmaker like Florian Wirtz has reportedly disrupted the midfield. Experts of the Bundesliga note that Wirtz is a creative talent who improves those around him, linking play effortlessly rather than imposing himself on the game.

Additionally, a host of players who excelled last campaign—including Mo Salah, Ibrahima Konaté, Alexis Mac Allister, and Conor Bradley—are now below their best. Actually, most of the team is. Yet every one of them share one significant, recent experience: the tragic death of their teammate and friend, Diogo Jota.

The Unseen Impact: Grief on the Pitch

We are now just more than three months since the devastating loss of their teammate. Although the outside world moves on quickly, shifting focus to other events, the club's players carry on training and playing each day in the absence of their mate.

It is impossible to know how each player and member of the backroom team is dealing from one day to the next. It requires a significant amount of speculation. Perhaps Salah failed to defend in a recent match simply he was tired. Or perhaps his form is down a small percentage points due to the fact he is grieving for his pal.

The London club's head coach, Enzo Maresca, spoke eloquently before a fixture, drawing a parallel to his own situation of the loss of a teammate, Antonio Puerta, while at Sevilla. "How they are performing this campaign is fantastic," he said of Liverpool. "Particularly after Jota's loss. I went through exactly the same experience when I was a player 20 years ago."

"It is difficult for the squad, it's not easy for the organization, it's not easy for the coach when you arrive at the training ground and you find daily that place vacant. So you have to be very strong. And this is the explanation why for me they are doing not good, even better than good. Because they are attempting to handle a problem that is not easy."

Just as explained well on a popular fan podcast, the memory triggers are constant. The players are reminded by his song in the 20th minute, they see his empty locker in the changing room. In the middle of matches, a pass might be played and the realization arises: 'Oh, Diogo would have reached that.' When the Egyptian was seen crying in front of the Kop a few games ago, it indicates that everything is far from all right.

The Boundaries of Punditry and Human Emotion

Having reporting on football for twenty years, one comes to believe there is a fundamental superficiality in most punditry. We simply do not know how an player is coping at any specific moment and how that impacts their play. Jota's passing is one of the most stark examples. We know a terrible event happened, and we understand the nature of grief. But further lies an intangible level of impact on different individuals at the organization. It is highly likely that a few of the squad themselves do not fully grasp its effect from one day to the next.

The way the media covers this and how fans analyze performances is obviously far from the most important factor. On a functional level, mentioning Jota's passing is difficult to accomplish in a brief segment before transitioning to on-field issues. Beyond this particular event and beyond Liverpool, it would seem bizarre to preface each critique of a footballer with an admission that we know so little about their private circumstances—be it their family situation, health struggles, or relationship difficulties.

An ex- pro footballer, Nedum Onuoha, recently talked on a broadcast about how his mother's passing halfway through his career impacted his passion for the game. "I didn't enjoy football as much," he stated. "Some of the highs and the low points that come with it didn't really feel the same after that." And that was many years into his profession; for Liverpool and Jota, it has been only three months.

The Final Point

Therefore, whatever Liverpool accomplish in the coming months—if it's something or failure—even if we omit reference to it every time we discuss their fixtures, and even if it isn't the cause for their eventual result, we should not forget that a few weeks ago they suffered the loss of not just a exceptional player, but, crucially, they lost a friend.