NewsArne Slot details the key factor behind Hugo Ekitike's superb form
The Liverpool forward has scored five goals in his last three Premier League appearances and, overall, has netted 11 times for the Reds since his summer transfer from Eintracht Frankfurt.
Only Manchester City’s Erling Haaland has registered more non-penalty goals in the top flight this season than Ekitike’s tally of eight and, speaking ahead of Saturday’s meeting with Wolverhampton Wanderers, head coach Slot said: “I think he has showed a lot of hard work to get to this fitness level where he is at the moment.
“It sometimes took us, me, a bit of convincing that this all is actually needed to become stronger but he always did it - and not always with a smile on his face!
“But he has worked really hard to get fitter and fitter and fitter on and off the pitch and I’ve tried to convince him as well that the better you defend a set-piece the bigger chance you have to score a goal at the other end because if you are 0-0 it’s easier to score a goal than when you are 1-0 down.
“This might sound strange but what it does with the energy levels of the other team, if you are conceding or if you are 1-0 up, that is a difference.
“So, for us, for him to score goals it’s also important that we hardly concede, let alone in set-pieces. But he has worked really hard to get where he is now and I think he is ready to go into a programme we are facing now but he is not the only No.9 I have.
“I have Federico Chiesa I can play in that position as well so I have the chance to, I wouldn’t say rest him, but take him off if he is completely tired with Federico Chiesa being available.”
Liverpool go into the weekend meeting with Wolves seeking to extend their winning run across all competitions to four matches. Indeed, Slot’s team are unbeaten in their last six games and he was asked what has changed to prompt their upturn in form.
The boss replied: “I think the main thing that has changed is that, apart from the second half against Brighton, we haven’t conceded that many chances as we did in the run we had before.
“I also think we’ve been a bit more lucky than we’ve been in the games before because we have played games that we were so much better than the other team in terms of everything that comes to football, but maybe the main thing that people always look at is chance creation to which [compared to what] you have conceded.
“Now in the last game against Spurs I don’t think we had many more chances than them and against Brighton it was equal as well, and those are the two games we have won. So, that’s what you get with a low-scoring sport. We have been many times, many times, so, so unlucky with the result – almost every time.
“But in the last two games, I wouldn’t say we didn’t deserve it, but it was more of an equal game, those two, than many other games we have played that we have lost. So that is the nice part of football, that the performance doesn’t always give the result that you can expect.”