‘We lost the edge, what’s the point?’: Liverpool’s £241m signings Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz couldn’t settle because team-mates ‘didn’t care’ after Diogo Jota’s death, says Andy Robertson
Former Liverpool defender Andy Robertson has admitted that Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz struggled to settle in at Anfield last season because the squad ‘didn’t care about football’ following the death of Diogo Jota.
Jota was tragically killed in a car accident alongside his brother Andre Silva in northern Spain in July 2025. The 28-year-old had been on his way to report to Merseyside for pre-season training.
In the same summer, Liverpool purchased both Isak and Wirtz for a combined £241million. However, both players struggled in what was a difficult season for the Reds, as they finished fifth in the Premier League.
Robertson, who is now at Tottenham following nine years at Anfield, was a close friend of Jota’s and, during an episode of The Overlap, has explained how the forward’s sudden death affected the settling-in period of the big-money signings.
An emotional Robertson said: ‘It’s difficult to describe or talk about really because what we went through, it was horrendous.
‘If I’m talking about the new signings, they’re coming into a club that is heartbroken. And that is where I felt so sorry for these guys because they had signed and had signed for big money and all.
Former Liverpool defender has opened up on how the death of Diogo Jota affected the Reds squad last season
The Scot said that Alexander Isak (left) and Florian Wirtz (right) struggled to settle at Anfield because of how Jota’s death impacted the club
‘If I’m talking about football, it took them months to settle in because we didn’t care about football. That was the truth of it because we just lost one of your best mates in the changing room.’
Robertson was entering the final year of his Reds deal, having already won everything there is to win during his time at the club, when he learned that his friend and team-mate had passed away suddenly.
The Scotland international confessed that the Liverpool squad ‘lost’ their determination on the pitch due to the tragedy, which led to poor results, and ultimately, a trophyless season.
He continued: ‘I think all footballers we all have that edge, don’t we? I think when you lose that edge sometimes, then you can’t perform to your best. And I think last season we lost the edge.
‘When I look back on it, we lost that maybe determination a little bit, and things like that because I know at times we were going “What’s the point?” Look at what Jotsy’s family are going through, look at his kids.
‘But yeah, we were grieving as a group. It was our mate at the end of the day. He’s not a footballer to us. He was a team-mate, he was a friend, he was an everything.’
Robertson was a very close friend of Jota during their five years together at Anfield
The Scot had gone to Jota’s wedding weeks before he died before attending his funeral
Jota and his brother were on a road trip to the northern Spanish port city of Santander, in order to catch a ferry to the UK as Jota was due to return to Liverpool for his sixth pre-season on Merseyside.
Jota was driving after being advised by medical professionals not to travel by plane following lung surgery earlier in the summer.
He had married his childhood sweetheart Rute Cardoso at a church in Porto, Portugal, just 11 days before the devastating collision, which Robertson and fellow former Liverpool team-mate Caoimhin Kelleher attended.
‘For us, it was incredibly difficult,’ Robertson added. ‘I mean, the week before he died, I was at his wedding.
That’s one of the most difficult things you will ever go through. Seeing him on the happiest day of his life then the next week you are seeing his family torn apart.’
