Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk has spoken openly about the emotional weight the squad carries as they prepare to face Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday, the first meeting between the clubs since the tragic accident earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Jota\u2019s sons, Dinis and Duarte, will join the matchday mascots for the fixture. Van Dijk used the club match programme to reflect on a year that delivered both the joy of a title and the pain of devastating loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cSaturday marks our last fixture of 2025 and when I reflect back on the year there have been a wide range of emotions for everybody at the club,\u201d Van Dijk wrote in the match programme. \u201cThere have been some incredible highs, of course.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo become Premier League champions, as we did back in April, was incredible. Lifting that trophy in front of you guys at Anfield is a memory that I will never forget, I can assure you. It was a real team effort and a deserved reward for a season of hard work, on and off the pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cSoon after that, though, came the most devastating of lows. The loss of Diogo Jota and his brother Andr\u00e9 Silva in July was something none of us could ever have prepared for, and something all of us are still coming to terms with.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur thoughts, as ever, remain with Diogo and Andr\u00e9\u2019s family. They will never, ever be forgotten, and we will carry their memory always.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wolves manager Arne Slot also addressed the occasion in his programme notes, urging supporters to show unity and support for Jota\u2019s family as they approach their first Christmas without him.<\/p>\n
\u201cReflecting on everything that has happened over the last 12 months ignites a rollercoaster of emotions but it is normal at this time of year to look back to everything that has happened,\u201d Slot said in his own notes.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoing so leads me to think especially of the family of Diogo Jota on what will be their first Christmas without him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not my place to tell them where they should look for comfort\u2014if that is even possible\u2014but I can only hope that the feeling of love and affection that Diogo still generates brings them some solace.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wolves game closes Liverpool\u2019s 2025 programme; the club resume on Jan. 1 with a visit from Leeds United.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Van Dijk honoured Jota as Liverpool prepare to meet Wolves on Saturday; sons to be mascots and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5408,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,172,783],"tags":[299],"class_list":["post-5409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-epl","category-wolverhampton-wanderers","tag-arne-slot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}