Danny Ings, time to go?
Danny Ings is surplus to requirements at West Ham. It’s hard to say that, as he has been a top class premier league footballer for all of his career. Nobody can doubt he is a proven Premier league goal scorer. But he only has 5 goal contributions in 30 appearances since he arrived at the club, and that is not good enough.
He doesn’t suit how Moyes wants to play. Moyes won’t go two up top which is the only way I could possibly see him sneak back into the team, but that isn’t how the manager sets up. If play time is anything to go by, the manager has lost faith in the striker completely.
Ings started against Batas Topola where he was poor. He was subbed off at the 77th minute after not contributing anything much to the teams performance, where after his exclusion we went on to win the game. Against Liverpool he came on for the last few minutes, but this seemed as more of a token gesture for his former club. He did however start for West Ham again against Lincoln, but was equally poor. In the games against Batas Topola and Lincoln, he needed to put in a top performance. Strikers in games like those should look like the best player on the pitch, unfortunately he looked like a square peg in a round hole, simply not able to play how Moyes needed him too. He didn’t see any minutes as the Hammers beat Sheffield United.
With the Englishman receiving far less minutes than he probably expected, should he look to move on? There were various reports in the summer transfer window just passed, that Ings was offered the chance to move on. So could he look to reconsider a move in the January transfer window?
In the game against SC Frieburg Ings was substituted on in the 90th minute alongside strike partner Divin Mubama. This is why I mentioned the “two up top” theory before. However this could have just been to provide youth player Divin Mubama with an experienced strike partner, so perhaps best not to read into that.
Where could he go?
Relegation teams come to mind as Ings provides goals, and goals win games. Could he be the difference for Luton Town to be able to perform another miracle by keeping themselves up for another season in the top flight? I see burnley being a better fit for Ings as Kompany had his side playing great attacking football during their time in the championship. This style of play has historically suited Ings. However the striker commands big wages, probably too big for any of the relegation candidates to provide. So unless he takes a large drop in wage, which isn’t impossible, Ings might have to look towards Europe for a team.
Who might replace him?
Moyes seems to have little faith in Ings ability to rescue a game, where his odd few minutes at the end of matches have maybe served as an insult to Ings. However there are players that would revel in the chance to play for the first team for the remaining few minutes of a match… Callum Marshall and Divin Mubama. As mentioned Divin Mubama came on for a few minutes in the game against SC Frieburg, however academy striker Callum Marshall has recently gained a huge achievement as by representing his country. On Saturday the 14th of October, Marshall made in impressive debut for Northern Island. The Northern Irish media made a big deal of his performance, calling him the “next big thing” for Northern Island.
Callum Marshall is too good for the academy. Football needs to be a challenge to stimulate development in youth players, and premier league 2 isn’t doing that for Marshall anymore. If he can’t replace Ings, by Ings leaving in the January window, the club has to look to loan him out to a championship side. However, he recently signed a new contract, so I suspect a plan is already in place to maintain the impressive improvement in the young lads football. It will be interesting to see if he plays for Northern Island tomorrow night in their European qualifier match against Slovenia. If he does play, and score, then I feel we have our Danny Ings replacement here already.
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