Louis Tomlinson is sure One Direction wouldn’t have been the greatest team the world had ever seen without Liam Payne .

Nearly a year after his fellow bandmate’s death at the age of 31, the “Lemonade” singer reflected on the criticism Payne had received in the months preceding the tragedy.

“Anyone who knew him [Liam] personally would know how deeply unfair that was,” Tomlinson told Rolling Stone UK in a blurb from an upcoming profile, set to drop Oct. 9. “Anything that he got wrong in life, Liam—which, by the way, we all do daily—it was never through malice.”

Indeed, in the months leading up to his fatal fall from a balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Payne was the subject of backlash by members of his band’s own fandom. Critics called out the “Strip That Down” sing

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