The 18th round of the 2025/26 Premier League season will feature another key match, with Liverpool hosting Wolverhampton Wanderers at Anfield. In an interview, Sloot stated that French striker Ekitic is constantly improving himself both on and off the pitch, and believes the striker is ready for another busy stretch of matches.

Liverpool defeated Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 in the last round of the Premier League, thanks to goals from Isak and Ekittiq, bringing their record to 3 wins and 2 losses in the last 5 rounds.

So far this Premier League season, 23-year-old Ektić has contributed 8 goals and 2 assists for Liverpool.

Liverpool manager Sloot said, "I think he has put in a lot of effort to get to where he is now. Sometimes we and I need to spend time convincing ourselves that this intensity is necessary to become stronger, and he has done it all, although he wasn't always smiling in the process."

"He works very hard to improve his physical fitness, both on and off the field. I have also tried to explain to him that the better he does in defending set pieces, the greater his chances of scoring on the other end, because it is much easier to score when the score is 0-0 than when the score is 0-1. This may sound a bit strange, but the impact on the energy level of the other team is different when conceding a goal or when leading 1-0."

Sloot pointed out, "So for both of us, it's important to score goals while also avoiding conceding as much as possible, especially from set pieces. He's worked incredibly hard to get to where he is today, and I think he's ready for the rest of the season, but he's not my only option for the number 9 position."

“I can also play Chiesa in that position, so I have options. I wouldn’t say I’m resting him, but rather that I’ll substitute him when he’s completely exhausted, because Chiesa is always available to play.”

When discussing the team's recent changes, Slaughter said, "I think the most significant change is that, except for the second half against Brighton, we haven't given our opponents as many chances as before. I also think we've been a bit luckier than in the previous few games because in the matches we've played, we've been significantly stronger than our opponents in every aspect of football. But people tend to focus on how many chances we've created and how many chances we've given to our opponents."

"In the recent game against Tottenham, I don't think we had significantly more chances than them. The chances were about the same against Brighton, but we won both games. That's the nature of low-scoring sports. We've been extremely unlucky with results many times before, almost every single time."

Slott added, "However, in these last two games, I wouldn't say we didn't deserve the wins, but they were much more evenly matched than many of the games we've lost. That's what makes football interesting, because performances don't always lead to the expected results."