Players often talk about knowing a shot is destined for the back of the net from the very second their boot makes contact with the ball.

It is fair to assume Coutinho experienced that feeling acutely when he walloped a piledriver from 30 yards just three minutes into a meeting with Southampton at St Mary's in February 2015.

Yes, the ball swerved and dipped along its trajectory, but the route from turf to target – off the underside of the crossbar – felt destined and Fraser Forster's dive predetermined to be forlorn.

Coutinho knew.