Southampton striker Danny Ings is a guy who I have admired since his days with Burnley when he inspired the Clarets to promotion to the Premier League.
In his debut Premier League campaign, he scored a respectable 11 goals in a team that was simply out of its depth. The Clarets suffered relegation, but Ings’ individual performances impressed enough for Liverpool to snap him up as a free agent.
Injuries fatal to his time on Merseyside
Ings spent a frustrating three seasons with the Reds, making just 14 top-flight appearances, and scoring just three goals in the process. In truth, he was always going to struggle for first-team football simply due to the quality of strikers in the Reds squad.
However, the quality of his competitors for a starting place was not the major factor in his lack of games, injuries were. He first sustained a knee injury in October 2015 in his first training session under new Reds boss Jurgen Klopp.
The striker only returned to action in Liverpool’s last game of the season against West Brom. Unfortunately, Ings sustained damage to his right knee in October 2016, which kept him out of action for 11 months.
He returned to first-team action in September 2017 but struggled to force his way into a prolific strike force of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and of course Mohamed Salah.
A fresh start at Southampton
Ings joined Southampton on transfer deadline day on an initial loan. The deal will become a permanent one next summer, costing the Saints a possible fee of around £20million.
The striker has shown his determination to make up for lost time with the club from the south coast, as despite the team struggling he has scored twice, including last time out in a 2-0 win at Crystal Palace, the Saints first league win of the campaign.
The 26-year-old looks to be enjoying playing the game again and being an important player for his team. He poses a major threat to opposing defences. He may well prove to be a bargain if he continues in his current vein of form.
It also makes a change a player joining Southampton from Liverpool. It is usually the other way around.
At the minute, Ings is thriving for Southampton and hopefully, he can stay injury-free. If he can, then he will have a good chance of adding to his one England cap in the near future. The Three Lions have a dearth of strikers, and at 26 years old he still has time to force his way into the thinking of England boss Gareth Southgate.
Southampton needs to pick up form
As previously mentioned, Ings has been in decent scoring form in the early matches of his Saints career. However, his team have struggled for wins, not only this season but also for much of last season.
In fact, the Saints record of four wins in their last 30 Premier League games is a woeful one. Things need to change and quickly or the team from the south coast will be in a relegation dogfight just as they were last season.
The victory over Crystal Palace last time out should lift spirits and provide some confidence heading into Monday nights home match against Brighton, a game the Saints are evens to win.
Finding the net was one of Southampton’s biggest problems last season. Danny Ings could be the solution to that problem. If given the right service the former Burnley striker will weigh in with his fair share of goals.
I hope that the move to Southampton will be what revives the striker’s career, as there are few players in the Premier League who deserves to succeed more than the former Liverpool striker.
Will Danny Ings make a success of his career at Southampton?
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