Roy Hodgson today revealed he isn't surprised by David Ngog's early-season scoring spree - because he tried to take the striker on loan to former club Fulham last season.
The 21-year-old has netted four goals in three first-team appearances so far this term, including a thunderous finish in Sunday's Barclays Premier League opener with Arsenal at Anfield.
It means Ngog has already halved his tally for the entire of the 2009-10 campaign - but such scoring exploits have not come as a shock to Hodgson, who insists he has always been an admirer of qualities possessed by the Reds' No.24.
The boss told a press conference at Anfield: "I wouldn't say he has surprised me. He is performing pretty much in the way I thought he could and should perform.
"In terms of judgement of front players, there's often a dual judgement - the judgement of the coach and the players who appreciate what he's doing, but if he's not scoring goals that won't be appreciated by other people such as fans and the mass media.
"I tried to loan him when I was at Fulham, but we were not allowed to because Liverpool didn't want to loan him out.
"We ended up taking Stefano Okaka from Roma, but when we were looking for some help up front we enquired about David Ngog and were told he wasn't available.
"So obviously I've always had some consideration for him."
In addition to breaching the Arsenal net on Sunday, Ngog was a constant menace to the Gunners' rearguard before he was afforded a standing ovation by the Kop after making way for Fernando Torres on 74 minutes.
Hodgson added: "At the moment he's scoring goals so everything in the garden is rosy. It's not certain for me everything in the garden was not rosy when he wasn't scoring goals - he might have still been doing a lot of other good things.
"But front players need goals, there is no question of that, and when they get them their tails are up, they get good reviews from everybody and feel so much better about themselves.
"At the moment his situation is very positive because he is not only playing well and doing a good job for us in leading the line, he's scoring goals as well."
Though buoyed by Ngog's early-season form, Hodgson is refusing to set his young striker any goal targets for the season.
Instead, he is hoping to see the Frenchman's all-round game continue to improve over the course of 2010-11.
"To get 20-25 goals a season you have to be playing in the region of 50-60 games," he said. "In reality, I wouldn't want that at the moment because that would possibly mean Torres isn't playing a lot of games.
"I don't set targets for him in terms of number of goals, my target for him is to be good enough to play in the Liverpool first team so that if I decided just to play with one forward, he could do what he has been doing for us so far."
The return of Torres to action against Arsenal on Sunday has further bolstered Hodgson's attacking options as he prepares to lead his contingent into a busy period of domestic and European fixtures.
However, the boss will continue to err on the side of caution with the fitness of the World Cup winner.
"The Sports Science people are concerned that we don't rush him back too early and that we don't prejudice his fitness or situation with the injury he took him to the World Cup," he said.
"We don't want to prejudice anything by throwing him into the fray too early, but he is very, very keen to get back in.
"I thought he handled himself well in the 15 minutes he played against Arsenal, so I am hoping he will play a part in tomorrow night's game (against Trabzonspor) and then be ready for Manchester City."
Meanwhile, Hodgson has confirmed Liverpool decided not to appeal the red card Joe Cole received in the 1-1 draw with Arsenal in case his automatic three-match ban was further extended by the FA.
Although the gaffer admits to still holding a sense of frustration at the decision, he decided against pursuing the matter.
Hodgson said: "In an ideal world you would have a case for an appeal on the basis of anyone looking at it would probably agree with me the decision to send him off was harsh.
"But of course, with the way the rules are set up and the way disciplinary committees deal with these matters, you have got very strict codes on which you can appeal. We were concerned if we appealed it might increase the ban, which would be even worse for us, so we decided not to."
He added: "It is disappointing. You want to start off flying and you hope at the start of a season you get all your players fit, well and ready to go, as well as the chance to bed them down into team.
"But these things happen in football. We are very disappointed for him, but on the other hand it was a brave and somewhat reckless challenge because the ball could have been allowed to be played down the line without him trying to block it and then there would have been no danger of him colliding with the player."
Cole's dismissal and Pepe Reina's uncharacteristic 90th-minute own-goal soured what was an otherwise highly-encouraging afternoon for Hodgson in his first Barclays Premier League game in charge of Liverpool.
The stopper bundled the ball into the back of his own net to ensure Arsenal took a share of the spoils back to north London with a 1-1 draw - but the manager has no doubts the Spaniard will bounce back.
He revealed: "Pepe's fine. If you're a goalkeeper and can't live with a mistake that you make then you'll never have a career at any level.
"The fact is there is only one certainty in football if you're a goalkeeper and that is one day you'll make a mistake which is going to let in a goal that may cost your team some points. When you put the gloves on, you know that.
"If you're a good goalkeeper it doesn't very happen often, and more often than not you'll come off the field with people congratulating you on winning points for the team because you've made so many good saves.
"But the day is going to come when you will make a mistake.
"It was a mistake, of course, and he understands that. We all feel very sorry for him because he took it very hard after such a good performance from him and the team.
"But he's a strong character and as far as I am concerned, I have not mentioned it to him and he has not mentioned it to me. In training this morning he was very good so let's hope he's forgotten it as quickly as I've forgotten it."
