"We didn't care about football. That was the truth of it." Andy Robertson said it plainly, and it explains more about Liverpool's catastrophic 2025-26 season than any tactical breakdown ever could.
Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, the former Liverpool fullback didn't dress it up. When Diogo Jota and his brother André Silva were killed in a car accident on July 3, 2025, in Zamora, Spain, it didn't just break the squad emotionally — it hollowed them out entirely. Six weeks later, they were expected to defend a Premier League title.
"He's not just a footballer to us. He was a teammate, a friend. He was everything."
A title defense that became something else entirely
The numbers from last season are stark. Liverpool finished fifth with 60 points — 25 behind Arsenal, who won the title. They went from four league defeats in Slot's debut campaign to 12. Six of those losses came in the opening months after Jota's death.
The club had spent close to £450 million in the summer, bringing in Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitiké. Robertson's point about those signings cuts through the easy narrative of expensive flops: they weren't arriving at a football club in transition. They were arriving at one in grief. Settling into a dressing room full of ghosts takes more than a pre-season.
"They're coming into a club that is heartbroken, and they're trying," Robertson said. "That's when I felt so sorry for these guys."
It ended with Arne Slot leaving, Mohamed Salah departing, Konaté gone, Robertson himself out the door — and a final-day scramble just to reach the Champions League.
Liverpool retired the number 20. They built a memorial.
Jota's number 20 was retired before the season started. The club erected a permanent memorial called 'Forever 20' on 97 Avenue at Anfield, honoring both Jota and his brother André — a place for supporters to grieve and remember, not just a symbolic gesture.
Robertson described losing "the edge" — that competitive sharpness that separates title challengers from everyone else. "I know at times we were going, 'What's the point?' Look at what his family are going through, look at his kids."
When a squad is asking what's the point of football, the table reflects that. Liverpool's odds of returning to title contention next season will depend entirely on whether a rebuilt squad — under new management, with new personnel — can find something the 2025-26 side couldn't: a reason to care again.
