Portugal Colonial - Liverpool boss Slot says Ekitike reaping rewards for greater physicality

The 23-year-old scored on his first three appearances after joining from Eintracht Frankfurt but that achievement was somewhat overshadowed by the £125 million ($169 million) arrival of Alexander Isak at Anfield.

Ekitike only managed three goals in his next 17 matches as the British record signing struggled to get to grips with the repeated demands of English football.

But with the injured Isak now set to be sidelined for several months and Liverpool star Mohamed Salah at the Africa Cup of Nations, the Merseyside club are looking to the Frenchman to lead the line.

Slot believes much of Ekitike's recent progress can be attributed to better physical condition, although the Dutch boss said he had to convince the forward that such work was needed.

"He showed a lot of hard work to get to this fitness level where he is at the moment," Slot said ahead of Saturday's match at home to basement club Wolves.

"It sometimes took us –- me –- a bit of convincing that this all is actually needed to become stronger but he always did it, not always with a smile on his face but he has worked really hard to get fitter on and off the pitch."

Slot added: "I've tried to convince him as well, the better you defend a set-piece the bigger chance you have to score at the other end, because if you are 0-0 it is easier to score a goal than if you are 1-0 down."

Reigning champions Liverpool are on a run of six games unbeaten in all competitions, following a woeful sequence of nine losses in 12 that left them all but out of title contention this season.

They are now fifth in the table, but still 10 points adrift of Premier League leaders Arsenal, with Slot adamant there has not been as wide a gap in their form as suggested by those two runs.

"The main thing that has changed is, apart from the second half against Brighton (2-0 win on December 13), we haven't conceded that many chances as we did in the run we had before," he said.

"I also think we have been a bit more lucky than in the games before because we have played games where we were so much better than the other teams.

"In the last game against Spurs (2-1 win last Saturday) I don't think we had many more chances against them and against Brighton it was equal as well, and those two games we won.

"Many times we have been so unlucky with the result, almost every time, but in the last two games I wouldn't say we didn't deserve it but they were more equal games than many others we have played which we lost."

X.M.Francisco--PC