The Sports Lowdown For All Your News and OpinionsDirk Kuyt scored his second hat-trick in as many weeks to keep his side in contention at the top of the Dutch League and to single-handedly out score Liverpool’s entire team.
The former Liverpool striker wrote himself into Anfield folklore with a famous three goal blundering of bitter rivals Manchester United in 2011, but his most recent hat-trick during Feyenoord’s 3-1 win at AZ Alkmaar is not one Liverpool fans will revel in.
The Merseysiders are enduring yet another spell out in the goalscoring wasteland. With Daniel Sturridge perpetually injured, Christian Benteke sidelined and Divock Origi quite useless, Liverpool have struggled to find the net.
In fact, bottom-of-table Aston Villa have scored as many times as Liverpool in the league this season: both have managed just nine goals.
The Chinese believe that the number nine represents power and they consider it a good number because when spoken it sounds similar to Chinese word for long-lasting. Appropriate for Liverpool then since there seems to be no end to their post-Suarez goal malfunctions.
And into this barren scene comes a Dutchman once beloved by every Liverpool fan on the planet.
In just two games Kuyt has scored more goals than Liverpool’s strike force combined and he leads the goalscoring charts in the Netherlands with ten goals in as many games.
His form has rejuvenated a Feyenoord side decimated by departures. A year ago manager Ronald Koeman left for Southampton bringing star striker Graziano Pelle with him. Following the two out the door that summer was Daryl Janmaat, Stefan de Vrij and Bruno Martins Indi.
Despite the rebuilding process, Kuyt returned to the side he left for Liverpool in 2006 this summer and made a good on an almost ten-year promise to return to his local club one day.
And he has sparked an unlikely title challenge by the Dutch side who have waited 16 years to see their names once again on the Eredivisie trophy.
Kuyt elegantly side-footed past the goalkeeper for his first at the weekend, before cleverly guiding an off-target shot into the goal with a deliberate deflection. He finished it off from the spot and purpelled himself and Feyenoord to the top of the table. They trail Ajax on goal difference.
Hard work and an unwavering determination: Kuyt embodies the Feyenoord attitude just as he once did at Liverpool. It is the type of character that Jurgen Klopp has been trying to drag out of the current crop of Liverpool players.
And it goes without saying that Kuyt has never exactly been a prolific goalscorer, which makes his outgunning of Liverpool even more impressive, but his accomplishments are no joke.
Liverpool probably aren’t laughing.
Other strikers currently outscoring the Reds:
Jamie Vardy, Leicester (leads the Premier League goalscoring charts with ten)
Robert Lewandoski, Bayern Munich (13 in the Bundesliga)
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Borussia Dortmund (13 goals for Klopp’s old club)
