During his first Premier League campaign with Burnley, Danny Ings promise was plain to see.
He was leading the line for the relegation-threatened Clarets, and in his very early twenties, there was still plenty of room to improve. Upon Burnley’s relegation, a transfer to Liverpool followed, and it appeared the Reds had made a shrewd move in the market. Sadly, it did not quite work out that way.
Between 2013 and 2018 Ings made just six Premier League starts under Jurgen Klopp, including missing the entire 2016/17 season through injury. Eventually, the Merseyside club lost patience with the striker and loaned him out to Southampton last season. There he showed enough promise, scoring seven in 24 matches, to prompt the Saints to make the move premiant for £20m and he has not looked back since.
Few if any, would have expected the formerly injury-laden striker to be such a success. But this season he has shattered expectations to equal his record number of goals in a Premier League season with almost half left to go. So far Ings, valued at £18m (Transfermarkt), has found the back of the net 12 times in 20 appearances, four of which have come as a substitute. Of all the players to have scored more than ten Premier League goals, just one striker has a better strike rate than Ings’ goal every 114 minutes. Only runaway leader Jamie Vardy, who has scored 17 in 19 matches this season, can boast a better record of goals per minute.
Currently, Ings is almost singlehandedly keeping Southampton in the division. He has scored 50 per cent of the Saints goals this campaign, and it is frightening to think where they would be without him. There is perhaps no other side in the division so overly reliant on a single player to maintain their status in the top flight, but it is that pressure that Ings has thrived on.
Having previously worked with Klopp may have helped the Englishman adjust quickly to Ralph Hasentuttl’s – known as the Alpine Klopp – system, but he has been keeping his manager in the job all season long. Southampton’s talisman is surpassing all that was expected of him at the start of the campaign, and if he can stay injury-free, he will continue to do so with considerable aplomb.
