Mo Salah's emotional Diogo Jota moment was the reminder everyone needed
Liverpool beat Bournemouth 4-2 at Anfield on Friday evening. It was a fantastic win in the end - the Reds had given up a 2-0 lead but found a way to fight back against the tide to take the three points.
The two late goals, from Federico Chiesa and Mohamed Salah, turned a frustrating night into a positive one, even if there are still concerns about the team. And then we got that moment after the final whistle.
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Liverpool fans ended the match by chanting for Diogo Jota, singing his song en masse. They'd done this at various points throughout the fixture, of course, but gave it everything as the final whistle blew.
It led to Salah joining in with them. The Egyptian walked to the Kop and applauded along with them, singing some of the lyrics.
And he did it with tears in his eyes as emotion completely took over. With that, we all got a sorely-needed reminder.
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Mo Salah mourns Diogo Jota
It's about a month and a half since Diogo's death alongside his brother André. A lot's happened since then in football, of course, but at the end of the day, that's no time at all.
And with all the transfers, and the start of the season, and the overall hype of it all, we've perhaps forgotten that. This Liverpool side is very much in mourning still.
You can see it with the way each player referenced Diogo either during or after the game. Hugo Ekitiké, Cody Gakpo and Salah all paid homage to him with their goal celebrations. Chiesa was sure to mention him repeatedly as he spoke afterwards.
But nothing showed it more than Salah's emotional moment in front of the Kop. It's something incredibly fresh in their minds, on the surface of everything at the club right now.
Go back to when it happened and the general sentiment was that expectations disappeared on these players and that the upcoming season suddenly didn't mean much. While no one would suggest abandoning the football entirely and treating it with no emotion, it does feel important to remember that winning football matches isn't actually the most important thing to most of these players right now.
They all require time and if that time means the entire season, it's completely understandable. Expectations simply can't be the same as usual and perhaps that just means excusing sub-par performances.
It's an impossible situation - and maybe this is all just the rantings of someone who felt caught up in that emotion as Salah joined the Kop. But this isn't a normal season, it can't possible be, and no one can lose sight of that.
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