Seventeen-year-old Liverpool starlet Oakley Cannonier just loves a hat-trick.Chester City in pre-season, as it turns out, was a sign of things to come. Five games into the season proper, he has already netted two more hat-tricks (and three more goals besides), beginning the campaign on fire.Liverpool U18s beat Manchester United 5-0 and Cannonier scored three of those goals.This weekend, he followed that up with another treble, this time against Crystal Palace. 'His slight frame, low centre of gravity, nifty feet and deadly finish have drawn comparisons to Philippe Coutinho from club staff' was The Athletic's verdict on the attacker a month or so ago.That comparison is not a bad one, despite Cannonier playing further forward than the Barcelona and Brazil man usually does.Read MoreRelated ArticlesRead MoreRelated ArticlesLike Diogo Jota or Roberto Firmino at first-team level, Cannonier drops deep to link the play and get involved further back, and he can also play wide.His best attribute, though, is his ice-cold finishing.Cannonier now has nine goals in five games this season across the U18s Premier League, UEFA Youth League and now the U18s Premier League Cup, too.It must also be noted that he has not played every minute of every game, either: to get an accurate picture of how potent in front of goal he has been, you need to look at his minutes per goal ratio. Read MoreRelated ArticlesRead MoreRelated ArticlesTo date this season, Cannonier is finding the back of the net every 33.1 minutes he is on the pitch.That record could quite easily have been even better as he has also seen at least two goals narrowly ruled out for offside.He likes to run in behind as much as he enjoys dropping deep, keeping defenders guessing as to where he might pop up next, and getting into those positions is obviously paying off.This is a striker brimming with confidence, and it is surely only a matter of time before he makes the step up to U23s football for the first time."Oakley is a really good player," his manager at U18s level, Marc Bridge-Wilkinson, told the ECHO last month."We are really fortunate that we have really good players, and he is one of them. Were fortunate that we are going to see him play and injury-free, hopefully."If we were being honest, I think he would rather be remembered as the Oakley Cannonier that played today [rather than for being the Barcelona ball boy who teed up Trent Alexander-Arnold's quickly taken corner]," Bridge-Wilkinson added after Cannonier had scored a brace against Stoke City in a 5-3 victory."He scores goals, creates chances and threatens the backline. Its nice to be known for other things, but I think he would rather be known for playing football than being on the side of it."With a goal record as astoundingly good as Cannonier's this season, that will, sooner or later, be the case.It would take something very special to make people forget his contribution in the Champions League semi-final, but the forward, who signed his first professional contract with Liverpool in July 2021, is doing his best to produce just that.Read MoreRelated ArticlesRead MoreRelated Articles