By Dylan DaCosta
NOT good enough, impact sub, biggest goal threat, season over.
The perception, and perhaps reality, of Danny Ings’ Liverpool career has changed multiple times already – and the lad has only spent a few months on the pitch.
In the midst of the lack of goals, ideas and confidence displayed in the opening 11 fixtures under Brendan Rodgers, Ings stood out in stark contrast. But six months and a season-ending injury later, and fans have had no indication of what Ings can do under Klopp. There is, however, a greater understanding of the type of player Klopp is – and isn’t – looking for in a frontman.
https://twitter.com/IngsDanny/status/657598963617517568
Origi and Firmino have the efficiency, willingness and skillset the manager is looking for. Benteke doesn’t. Sturridge has all the talent in the world, so the rest is irrelevant.
Danny Ings, pre-injury, looked a genuine Klopp player. The fire, the determination, the passion – it’s what I (and Klopp) want from a footballer. Jürgen has spoken several times about playing football from the heart, and I’ll be damned if you find someone in our squad who does that more than Danny Ings. But even before factoring in potential summer deals, he has plenty of competition to get past before he finds himself starting games for Liverpool.
So what next for Danny?
I’ll preface this by saying I love the lad. Genuinely love him. Wanted to go out for curry with three friends and Danny but someone else had the privilege.
https://twitter.com/lfc/status/675403701721260036
I think he’ll work his socks off. I think he comes back and gives the pre-season everything he has. Klopp has given many players a chance to prove their worth, and he’ll do the same for Danny.
One up top, two up top, Götze, Alario, Markovic – it doesn’t matter. There are places to be won, and Danny Ings will fight for his chance. Where there’s a willingness to fight and grow, there is potential under Jürgen Klopp. Ings, still a young lad, can seize that initiative and force his way into the manager’s plans (whatever they may be).
He’ll come back with a determination to build on the flashes he showed early in his Liverpool career. He looked lively, he looked dangerous and he played with fire. Those are all qualities that are of use to Liverpool and Klopp. I can see those qualities sparking a genuine connection with the Anfield crowd. He’s got it in him. Hell, even his rehabilitation is filled with pure, unthrottled determination.
https://twitter.com/IngsDanny/status/701398319348772865
You know what you’re going to get with Danny Ings. He will run and press and score goals. In that sense, there’s something very Dirk Kuyt about him. The energy, the hard work, the big moments – you can see how Ings can fill that place. Like Kuyt, he could be helped with a willingness to play multiple positions and roles. He looks capable of leading the line for a European away, chasing every ball, running the channels and looking to get the Reds on the counter.
He looks capable of playing with a partner to batter the smaller sides. The flashes of him with Sturridge were very promising, and Jürgen could be tempted to let Ings buzz around another front man next season.
It’s possible he could do a job out wide. The raw desire and physicality are certainly there. He may not have the delivery or trickery of a traditional wideman, but he has goals. Goals win games, so get as many goalscorers on the pitch as possible.
With all the transfer speculation, he’s become something of a forgotten man. But I remember the Danny Ings who wore his heart on his sleeve, who celebrated ferociously and who loved playing football.
Isn’t that the type of player Klopp wants? The one who connects with the fans and plays from the heart? There should, and will, be room in the squad for a player who will fight for the badge.
It doesn’t have to be as a first choice player, because that spot is reserved for nobody (as even Daniel Sturridge has found). Plenty of strikers have made a career of being fantastic substitutes. What Manchester United wouldn’t do for a Chicharito right now. Ings can be that for Liverpool. Tired legs? Bring on a fresh Danny and let him harass the opposition. Down a goal? Throw Ings left midfield and tell him to get into the box. There is use for Ings, and Klopp will see it.
Why can’t he score 15 goals next season? Why can’t he bang in a derby hattrick? Why can’t he score in a cup final?
He will be here next year. He will fight. He will score. He will train hard and he will take whatever chances are given to him. That’s all I need. I suspect it’s all Klopp needs too.
There’s a place for Danny Ings at Liverpool next season. He’ll fight to make it an important one.
@dylandacosta
LISTEN: Neil Atkinson, Rob Gutmann, Steve Graves, John Gibbons and Ben Johnson talk Danny Ings.
My Dirk Kuyt Nomination – Minus the Goals as Addressed. Sort of.
What Price an Lallana? Bloody thing about writing this on the computer, Windows 10. Oh my god what is this nightmare, why has Pound Sterling symbol not been added as standard to this product yet where is character map oh no I’m not going on that low because I get high on Adam Lallana. Hey, I was born under Reagan so I’m deserved of my confused understanding of drugs; in the sense it was intentionally manipulated so is the power of the…oh to hell with principle…it’s the power of the $. So according to Google the real question here is Adam Lallana a $37.9m player and the answer should finally be an obvious bloody yes. To me it even makes more sense looking at that if one considers the relative obsolescence of the question. Assuming that transfer outlay plus wages let’s just call it 100 grand a week at 400 a month times twelve is totally irrelevant. In the NBA, buying the services of a reserve expected to play a third the minutes of your star would require a comparable contract (see what I did there, yeah I just did too) even by the original Moneyball standards which are so far below next year’s new TV money as to be a veritable apple to the snip we paid for Sturridge’s orange you get what I’m saying by now. So let’s talk about Adam briefly baby because he’s been worth the wait. Klopp clearly had been watching Adam in the South with Saints because he knows how to use him, Adam seems to understand this too. If we were still under H&G I’d have expected him to die of a heart attack in Klopp’s arms against T ought No One’s Spurs as the final act in our tragicomic club’s Broadway debut. But Hick’s is sleeping on his brother-in-law’s almost certainly lovely couch and Lallana’s gone and come good. It’s time to drop the dollar(whatever) sign, the real question being what exactly an Adam Lallana is if not a price. Well he’s a lovely little footballer, moves about the field like the Knight on the board: always a certain degree sideways. If he develops a porcelain type leg and becomes unreliable enough you might call him the quintessential British Sports Car and yes that’s an obvious Top Gear reference and yes I’m aware he plays defense too but my dad owned a bloody Triumph so I’ve suffered the slings and arrows enough to earn that joke. My old man also managed to somehow drive that same Triumph (Spitfire) to San Francisco from Washington DC back before that was even a thing. There’s a lesson in there, I can’t even imagine what it took but eventually that car came good. Whatever it took he figured it out and made it useful as a footballer again, quickfire passes and eerie balanced beautiful movement; the Dancing Man to Bobby’s Running Bloke. The homage to Kryuff against the German’s was literally ballet and you play with such a smirk. You run dainty and dare the biggest and baddest to call you out and look so slick doing it too. You’re our livewire sparkfire turbocharged engine boost; the extra injection of impetus to start the attack. A naked sabre pirouetted two steps forward and one to the left or right urging the hungry. Now Adam please hear my cries: bloody practice shooting more.
Thanks from a “finally fan”
Lovely.
Absolutely no clue as to what this has to do with Danny Ings, but I admire your man love for Adam Lallana.
I wrote a little bit about changed perceptions but then switched from my phone to my computer which also explains the frustration with the dollar sign. Something along the lines of Rafa finding a use for Kuyt with success coming due to that horse of a man’s willingness to run himself into the ground. Then I just got a little carried away been under the weather and haven’t been up to writing about Pool for a few now.
On an aside Kuyt has the antithesis of Lallana’s hair. They would be great subjects for that old MTV show Celebrity Wrestling or something along that line. Claymation if memory serves.
This is mad..
Find that space bar Matthew, it’s the big one usually. :)
Maybe i’m over-optimistic, but injuries not withstanding, i don’t see that there’s anyway that Ings doesn’t become a resounding success under Klopp. He was already doing pretty well under Rodgers and our game now is surely even more suited to the way he plays.
Can’t wait to see him back in a red shirt.
Generally i am so looking forward to next season already, it’s ridiculous. and we might do something good this season with just a modicum of luck.
I see potential, i see power and i see goals…. Ings is that player that can play in different positions on attack. He can gegenpress nd supply and he can also play as a poacher. I hav no doubts he will be successful next season. I stil remember how he played in the beginning of the season against Manchester united. Looking forward to see him in the red Jersey nxt season.
Shane Long could have been our next Dirk Kuyt.
Think Ings is better and younger. I’d give it the full Kuyt with Ings and move his work rate and goals to wide right next season. Milner covers him while Lallana would cover Coutinho on the other side.
Mad how long ago Ings and Gomez being the couple of bright spots for a doomed Rodgers feels. Like a completely different season.
remember Shane Long absolutely destroying Skyrtl, ran him ragged, but even though he scored his finishing is always suspect. Danny Ings, however, has everything we want in a leader of the line, including a clinical finish. Wish him well in pre-season; he is going to be worth his weight! And let’s not forget who is the subject of this article: hint, it’s not Lallana.