After just two wins from their opening thirteen games this season, Southampton found themselves 19th in the Premier League table at the end of November. Manager Ralph Hasenhuttl was fighting for his job, and the mood on the south coast was low.
Following a humiliating 9-0 hammering against Leicester, defeats to Manchester City and Everton saw Saints hit rock bottom. However, things were about to change.
Southampton have now won six of their last eight games, propelling them up to 12th. The team has made a remarkable turnaround, but one man in particular has made an unrivalled impact.
Danny Ings’s goals have been vital for Saints this season. Only Jamie Vardy has scored more Premier League goals than the 27-year-old in 2019/20, and he has already beaten his previous goalscoring record for a single top-flight campaign.
The former Burnley and Liverpool striker has netted ten in his last eleven league appearances, and thirteen in his last sixteen. After only scoring one is the first six games, this is an outstanding return.
Astonishingly, Ings has scored over 50% of Southampton’s league goals this season – the highest proportion of any player in the division. No other team in the Premier League relies more on a single player to score their goals.
He also averages a goal every 110 minutes – a record that is only bettered by Vardy and Sergio Aguero when looking at players that have scored at least five goals.
With Harry Kane likely to miss the remainder of the campaign through injury, many people have suggested Ings deserves an England call up. His solitary international cap came all the way back in 2015, but he hasn’t been involved with the national side since then.
Still, Ings’ goalscoring form cannot be ignored. If he continues to find the back of the net on a consistent basis, Gareth Southgate will have no choice but to include him in his squad for the friendlies against Italy and Denmark at the end of March.
It remains to be seen whether or not Ings will be selected for England’s Euro 2020 squad. But one thing’s for sure, if he maintains his purple patch, Southampton will continue to climb up the Premier League table.