When Robbie Keane scored against PSV in the Champions League he had a good reason to celebrate. He had after all scored his first goal for his favourite club since childhood. The joy on his face were for all to see. The media had put unfair pressure on him getting his first goal, Liverpool fans knew he would come good. He had already contributed to Liverpool's cause without getting on the scoresheet.
Those who are interested in stats might want to know where Robbie Keane is on the list of Liverpool strikers who have been the slowest to score their debut goal. Peter Crouch is miles ahead of everybody else after failing to score in his first 17 games, finally scoring against Wigan in the Premier League after 1228 minutes. He scored on average in every 2,7 games since then.
Though you take your time to score your first goal, it won't necessarily predict how your career will materialise as you can tell from the presence of a certain Ian Rush who is high on the list and above Keane. Liverpool's greatest goalscorer couldn't stop scoring from the moment he scored his first in the 1981/82 season and scored 30 goals in his full debut season.
Here is the list of strikers who had to play more than 200 minutes to score their debut goal for Liverpool.
Player
Minutes
Games
Debut goal
1
Peter Crouch
1228
18
03.12.2005
2
Arthur Rowley
1019
11
no goal!
3
Ian Rush
813
10
30.09.1981
4
Michael Robinson
784
10
28.09.1983
5
Robbie Keane
688
11
01.10.2008
6
Jack Balmer
531
6
07.12.1935
7
Kevin Baron
527
6
08.11.1947
8
Phil Boersma
480
7
04.11.1970
9
Emile Heskey
436
5
01.04.2000
10
Les Shannon
382
5
30.08.1948
11
Alf Arrowsmith
361
5
16.09.1963
12
Karl-Heinz Riedle
342
4
26.08.1997
13
Alan Waddle
337
4
08.12.1973
14
Dean Saunders
332
4
27.08.1991
15
Fernando Morientes
316
4
01.02.2005
16
Ian St John
309
4
30.08.1961
17
Sammy Smyth
292
4
07.02.1953
18
Eric Anderson
261
3
06.02.1954
19
David Johnson
255
3
28.08.1976
20
Neil Mellor
254
4
08.01.2003
21
Bobby Murdoch
252
3
08.02.1958
22
David Hodgson
242
4
04.09.1982
23
Nicolas Anelka
218
4
05.01.2002
Note: The list only includes strikers since the 1945-46 season as we do not always have scoring minutes from way back in time.
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