Preston vs Liverpool: Slot remembers Jota amid planned tribute
Arne Slot has paid an emotional tribute to Diogo Jota ahead of Liverpool’s first match since the Portugal forward’s death on Sunday.
Jota, who was 28, and his brother André Silva, who was 25, died in a car crash near Zamora, Spain on July 3.
Liverpool face Championship side Preston North End at Deepdale in a preseason friendly that could include several first-team players, who reported to training on Tuesday. The initial planned return to preseason training was delayed, with many players having attended the funeral in Portugal last week.
Jota and Silva will be commemorated at Deepdale with a rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” played ahead of kick-off and Preston will lay a wreath in front of the away supporters.
Liverpool, who have retired Jota’s No. 20 in his honour, also confirmed both sets of players will wear black armbands and a minute’s silence will be observed with digital tributes played on the screen and across pitchside LEDs.
Ahead of the match, Liverpool boss Arne Slot gave an interview to the club’s website in which he paid tribute to Jota and expressed his commiserations to the brothers’ family.
“First of all, it had a lot of impact on us but nothing compared to the loss that is felt by his parents, his wife Rute and his children and his other family.” Slot said.
“The first feeling we all have is of sadness. The second feeling that comes to my mind is pride. I think his parents and Rute can be so proud of the player and the person he was — mainly the person. I’ve spoken to many of his teammates, I’ve spoken to many staff members, and they all rate him so high and all say how nice of a person he was. That he was always himself. So they should and will be very proud if they could hear what all his teammates and all the staff members would say about him.
“Second of all, I think our fans can be so proud about the players we have at this club.
“They’ve seen them winning the league, that was a great achievement, but what they did in the last week with the togetherness they had, how they conducted themselves when we were in Portugal together, the fans couldn’t have asked for more from our players when it comes to how great human beings they are.
“Those are the two emotions. Of course, the first emotion of sadness is much stronger than the one of being proud. But it’s the both of them.”
Slot emphasised the need for his players feel what it is like to play football again as the players and staff continue to process their grief.
“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,” Slot said.
“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 teammates, to the staff, he was always himself. So let us try to be ourselves as well. So, 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.”
“Second of all, Jots was the player that if things were really, really, really difficult, I always looked at him and said, ‘Now we need something special from you.’ And he delivered so many times in those moments. I can come up with all of these moments, even before I was here he had many of these moments as well. So we are in a very difficult time, so let’s try to do what Diogo did so many times. If it’s so difficult then try a little bit harder or just keep on going and try to make it work.”