Grief will shape Liverpool's season after death of Jota

Over an impossible last month, where Liverpool's squad have shown admirable strength in striving to just keep going, some have been counselled that it's going to hit them when they won't expect it.

- MIGUEL DELANEY CHIEF FOOTBALL WRITER

It might be the empty place at training. It might be a highlight on television. It might be one of the many occasions when the team's fans sing his song, to the tune of “Bad Moon Rising”.

It might hit most over this weekend, when the lives of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva will be commemorated all over the Premier League, but especially at Anfield today. You don't really know when. You don't really know how. All Liverpool's players can do is try to work through it, that sudden wave of grief from the loss of a joyful friend, who was far more than just a teammate.

The great difference - from a sporting perspective - is that it might come in front of crowds of thousands, in view of audiences of millions, and amid the expectation to perform as champions.

It is the affecting discordance of discussing a real-life tragedy, where people are grieving, within the context of sport's relative trivialities. And yet games still have to be played. The football calendar just continues. The sport is also why millions more people were touched by Jota's passing than just those who matter most - his young family and friends.

So while it almost feels misplaced to be talking about the potential effects of this on mere football, the reality of that context is that players are grieving. We have no idea how this will manifest.

That fosters an understandable inclination to not talk about Jota's passing at all beyond the commemoration, to try and only discuss the football. You can already see the way the news cycle is naturally dominated by Liverpool's very active transfer window, and especially the Alexander Isak saga. There are moments when it doesn't feel like the same summer.