The Cerezo Osaka striker has drawn praise from coach Graham Arnold for his recent performances, despite his last Socceroos goal coming in the 1-0 World Cup win against Jordan in November 2019.
 
Taggart, 28, isn’t concerned by the mini draught - and believes it’s only a matter of time before the goals start flowing again, for club and country.
 
Taggart has scored six times in 15 games for Australia, and one in eight for Cerezo since his arrival from Suwon Bluewings.
 
After drawing another blank in the recent 2-1 loss to Japan in Tokyo, a philosophical Taggart told FTBL: “It’s important that I’m contributing to the team - even if I’m not scoring.
 
“You have to press, and bring other players into the game.
 
“I have great players around me and I’m happy when they are scoring and we are winning games.
 
"As you get older you realise there are other roles you need to take up in different periods and that’s what I’ve been trying to do.
 
“With the national team we're attacking side and I’d love to be among the goals but at the same time a winning side is more important.”
 
That said, Taggart knows the importance of rekindling his goal touch, especially with Jamie Maclaren and Mathew Leckie likely to be available again for November 11’s visit of Saudi Arabia to Sydney’s ComBank Stadium, Australia’s first home game in two years.
 
“I believe in myself and I believe that everything will fall into place, and I will be flying again and banging in goals for fun,” prophesied Taggart.
 
“I’m sure it will come - it’s just a matter of time. I’ve got to keep doing what I’m doing, getting in the right positions and making sure I try and hit the back of the net.
 
“I feel like I’m doing that - it’s just one of those things that will come. It’s not like I don’t know how to do it. It will all come back nicely eventually.”
 
In an illustration of football’s fine margins, Taggart hit the post four times in recent games and has endured a stop-start period to life in the J1 League.
 
“I was trapped in Australia for four months before I even got here, so it was difficult in that aspect,” he added.
 
“I think it was over six months before I’d actually played a game, so it’s been a little bit of an uphill battle.
 
“But I’ve stayed upbeat with these small setbacks (including getting injured in his first game).
 
“There’s always that risk when you’ve been out for a while.
 
“As a club we’ve also not been performing anywhere near where we’d like to be - especially in comparison to last year.
 
“Coming into a team where we’re not creating so many chances is another challenge.”
Taggart has no doubt Australia will topple Saudi Arabia off top spot in Group B when they meet.
 
“We’ve been fantastic in terms of winning, even when we were playing not that well we were still getting the results,” Taggart said of Australia’s 11 straight victories before the loss to the Samurai Blue.
 
“We were on a fantastic run and a lot of people are really proud of that.
 
“We’re disappointed we didn’t get a result against Japan but we’ll hold our heads high and keep going.
 
“It’s a little hiccup and I’m 100 per cent confident we’ll keep moving forward and winning games, whether it’s ugly or pretty.”