Although Southampton’s summer transfer window saw the club sign Che Adams from Birmingham City in a £15m deal, the form of another striker at St Mary’s is driving forward Ralph Hasenhüttl’s vision for the Saints in 2019/20.
Danny Ings, 27, arrived at the club on loan in 2018, but injuries have curtailed the striker’s ability to regularly start, with the former Liverpool man making 24 league appearances in the 2018/19 campaign.
Although Ings scored seven goals and registered three assists during his debut season on the south coast, so far in 2019/20 the striker has scored four goals in just nine Premier League appearances, whilst also registering an assist.
This impressive form has led to Hasenhüttl dropping summer signing Adams, with the former Birmingham man resigned to the bench for the last three games.
Yet pleasingly for the Saints’ Austrian boss, Ings has justified his manager’s decision to start him for three successive league games – the first time he has done so in 2019/20, and three consecutive goalscoring appearances alongside a brace in the Carabao Cup against Portsmouth points to a striker who is in imperious form and is consequently repaying his manager’s faith.
Although Jurgen Klopp’s decision to let Ings leave Anfield was more than understandable given the quality of the Reds’ frontline in the form of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino, the 27-year-old is currently displaying the qualities that sparked Liverpool’s interest in acquiring his services from Burnley in 2015.
With injuries such a well-documented pitfall of the striker’s career to date – with two spells out of over 200 days – if Ings is able to maintain his fitness levels and continue both starting and scoring for the Saints, then Liverpool may just rue letting go a forward who presently looks an upgrade on the attacking replacements at Anfield such as Divock Origi.
The 2019/20 campaign will be vital for Ings in ensuring he can rediscover the form that saw him earn a senior cap with England in 2015, but for now, Hasenhüttl will be delighted at the goalscoring performances that his striker is delivering; even if it is at the expense of the club’s summer signing Adams.