Trent Alexander-Arnold sends Diogo Jota love but highlights sobering Liverpool future | OneFootball

Liverpool's pre-season

As Alexander-Arnold says, the best way for him to get through this was to focus entirely on the match and his role at Real Madrid. That helped him push on and perform what must feel like an exceptionally trivial job right now.

But it’s something that Liverpool will find tough when they return for pre-season training on Tuesday. It’s not an environment in which they can focus on the task at hand - there aren’t any serious matches for over a month.

On top of it all, it’s a giant shared experience as they return to a squad without Jota. It’s difficult to see how they handle it and every single fan should do what they can to alleviate any and all pressure on the squad, quite honestly.

The pressure on the team was set to be immense this coming season after a giant spend and with expectations sky-high. Now? It’s all suddenly so meaningless, at least right now, and without any obvious way to shake off the emotion of it.

We’ll see what the season holds and how perspectives shift. For now, though, it’s all about getting through an incredibly sobering time with as much understanding as possible.