But now? Well, it's case of good luck with that one.
Because they are a dying breed verging on extinction if recent statistics are anything to go by.
So Liverpool's quest to find a player who can achieve it - let alone guarantee it - is looking ominously difficult.
The extra cutting edge in front of goal could have seen them still in the race for the title by now but such genuinely prolific goalscorers are so rare that the bulk of the transfer kitty being wired in from across the Atlantic would surely have to be splashed out on whichever target Rafael Benitez decides can fit that bill this summer.
It's easy to say that more goals means less missed chances, leading to more points and an increased chance of staying with the front-runners.
But the facts overwhelmingly back it up as well.
Only Didier Drogba and Cristiano Ronaldo stand any chance of making the 20-goal mark in this Premiership campaign and it's no coincidence their teams are the only ones with any chance of taking the title.
In truth, it's unlikely Ronaldo will get the four goals in six games he needs and even the revelation that is Drogba is still stuck two short of the total.
In the past few years only Thierry Henry and Ruud van Nistelrooy have passed the 20s on a regular basis - both have Premiership medals.
And when you consider that even Michael Owen failed to achieve that mark in Premiership football, what chance have modern-day Liverpool strikers got?
At present, the three main talisman are hovering sheepishly in and around double figures but this is par for the course for most top-flight forwards now because being a free-scoring marksman is a fading fad.
Many factors cause it, such as the fear of losing out on Premiership riches being so raw that games are far less open, hence opportunities to cut loose are limited.
It explains why Peter Crouch's hat-trick against Arsenal was, following similar feats by Drogba and Wayne Rooney, only the third Premiership hat-trick of the entire season. Alan Shearer scored five of those all by himself in the 1995-96 season.
In fact, it's the rarity of a Shearer-like commodity that is causing the current drought among number nines (or eights, 10s, 18s, 39s, etc...).
In 1996 he completed his third successive season of scoring 30 league goals. Since then? Only Henry and, remarkably, Kevin Phillips, have managed to hit the total which the likes of Shearer, Ian Rush and for a brief time, Andy Cole, found so effortless.
Although before this season Chelsea have become champions without a main goal-getter in the forward line, the importance of a reliable finisher surely can't be lost on Benitez and Saturday's events at Reading brought this into sharp focus.
First of all, Crouch. If he started all 38 Premiership games and could keep up his strike rate of 16 in 24 starts this campaign, there wouldn't be a problem.
But it seems the ratio is so good simply because he is given the luxury of a rest and tends to come back from it in tip-top shape, as he did when returning from a broken nose operation against Arsenal.
Fast forward one three-game week later and Crouch was nowhere near as sprightly or sharp. Excellent as he was in setting up the opening Liverpool goal, the closest he came to scoring himself was with a bizarre header against his own crossbar.
Then there's Dirk Kuyt. Fine finish for the winning goal, but it was his first since January and his total of 10 in the league merely underlines the fact that his most consistent contributions occur outside the box.
Craig Bellamy has never been a prolific scorer. Last season's total of 13 with Blackburn was his highest in his Premiership career and his only tally in double figures.
He'll struggle to match that this term, something which will frustrate him as much as being hauled off less than five minutes into the second half on Saturday following a hapless shout for a penalty.
Robbie Fowler is the only one of Liverpool's four forwards who has sustained a succession of seasons hitting the big goals totals.
A radio phone-in on Saturday evening featured an Arsenal fan declaring that they would have been European champions if Arsene Wenger had followed up his 1998 double with a successful bid to buy Fowler. As it was, 'That was one for Robbie' regularly rang round Highbury's marble walls as another chance went begging.
Fowler, however, turns 32 today and long past the point of being able to maintain such a strike-rate over a season.
All of which leaves Benitez with two choices. Persist with the risky and often flawed notion that goals can be spread across a championship-challenging squad or find someone who can provide the ruthless streak in front of goal that can turn one point into three.
The latter has to be the preferred option but certainly not the easier one. After all, if Andriy Shevchenko can't do it......