I remember a bright young striker called Danny Ings bursting on the football scene at Burnley in 2014. The then youngster helped Burnley to promotion to the Premier League. The Clarets went straight back down to the Championship.
When Sean Dyche’s side suffered relegation, they lost Ings to Liverpool and right-back Kieran Trippier to Tottenham. The pair were the outstanding players of a very poor Burnley team that season.
Since then the pair’s careers have gone in opposite directions. While Trippier has thrived this season at right wing-back spot in an exciting Tottenham side. However, Ings has endured frustration through injury.
I have to admit I forgot that the striker was still at Liverpool. That was until recently when he gave an interview with the Times saying how he wanted to stay at Liverpool.
Injury nightmares for the striker
To say that Danny Ings has been unfortunately with Liverpool during his Reds career would be an understatement. The 25-year-old has spent much of the last two seasons sidelined through various long-term knee injuries.
Those injuries have hamstrung his Liverpool career and development as well. When he first joined Liverpool, he looked like he had many of the attributes to become a fine player in the future. He was still also relatively young.
Injuries have restricted the striker to just six Premier League appearances for the Merseysiders. Those appearances have yielded two goals, including one in a Merseyside derby.
Ings is now working his way back to full match fitness. The striker made his only first-team appearance of the campaign as a substitute at Leicester in a 2-0 League Cup defeat. It seems he is moving in the right direction.
Linked with a move elsewhere
Since recovering from injury, Ings has been linked with a number of loan and permanent moves away from Anfield in January.
However, it seems he is determined to make it at Liverpool. Talking about a move away he told the Times: Everywhere I have been, I have always found a way to make it happen. I have been in a lot of tough situations at previous clubs where it has been hard to break in,”
“People from the outside looking in will probably have the assumption, ‘Oh, he’s the forgotten man’ but it has not crossed my mind at all. I still believe in myself. I still believe I can play in this team.
“When you are at a club like Liverpool, it is not a club that you want to walk away from. It would grate on me for the rest of my career, and the rest of my life, if I had not done everything to give it my all.
“I still feel like I have a big part to play in this football club.”
Ings may not want to leave Merseysiders on a permanent basis. However, maybe a loan move in January would help him regain his match sharpness, especially if it was a temporary move to another Premier League club.
At Liverpool, he will be competing with Brazilian international Roberto Firmino, who has made a bright start to the campaign, and injury-prone England international Daniel Sturridge for a central striking role.
That is not even mentioning the Reds highly-rated young England under-21 international Dominic Solanke, who has had limited chances to impress for the Merseysiders since his summer arrival from Chelsea.
Needs to revive his career
Danny Ings needs to revive a career that has already seen him capped once for England. A return to the Three Lions squad is a world away for the striker at the minute. However, he seems determined to come back stronger than ever.
Liverpool’s next game is a north west derby against Manchester United at Anfield a week today, a game the Reds are odds of 13/8 to win. Whether Ings will be involved in the massive clash is unclear. It would be nice to see the once-promising young striker feature in such a high-profile game after such bad luck.
It is never nice to see such a promising player have his career hampered by injury. Even as a fan of the team across the Stanley Park, I hope that Danny Ings can now stay clear of injury and revive his football career, whether that be at Liverpool or elsewhere.
