Liverpool head coach Arne Slot has urged his team to follow their emotions in the aftermath of the tragic death of teammate Diogo Jota and his younger brother.
The Reds took to the field for the first time since the tragedy when they played Preston in a pre-season friendly on Sunday, with goals from Conor Bradley, Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo setting up a 3-1 victory.
There were emotional tributes made with a minute of silence observed before kick off, while after the fixture Liverpool’s players stood and watched as fans sang Jota’s song relentlessly.
Slot spoke for the first time about the grieving process that the club must now respect and manage as the new Premier League season approaches.
The Dutch mentor said: “If we want to laugh, we laugh; if we want to cry, we’re going to cry.
“If they want to train they can train, if they don’t want to train they can not train. But be yourself, don’t think you have to be different than your emotions tell you.
“We will always carry him with us in our hearts, in our thoughts, wherever we go.
“Nothing seems to be important if we think of what has happened. But we are a football club and we need to train and we need to play again, if we want it or not.”
He added: “What I’ve said to the players, I can say it here as well. It’s very difficult to find the right words because we constantly debate what is appropriate.
“What is appropriate in our actions? What is appropriate (for) what we have to say? Can we train again? Can we laugh again? Can we be angry if there’s a wrong decision?
“And I’ve said to them, maybe the best thing for us to do is handle this situation like Jota was. And what I meant with that is that Jota was always himself, it didn’t matter if he was talking to me, to his team-mates, to the staff, he was always himself. So let us try to be ourselves as well.”
Liverpool have further pre-season fixtures against AC Milan (26 July)in Hong Kong before travelling to Japan to take on Yokohama FM (30 July).
