RED-HOT INGS FOR INGERLAND?
DANNY INGS joined Southampton to rekindle his injury-hit career. After leaving Liverpool in 2018 he said: ‘I want to show the country what I’m about again.’ Southampton’s record signing has certainly done that, and his form has not escaped the attention of England manager Gareth Southgate. Ings levelled against Crystal Palace, his eighth goal in his past eight games, to take his season’s tally to 14. Latching on to Martin Kelly’s backpass, Ings finished with a confident strike. Ings, 27, leads Southampton’s press and his knack of being in the right place at the right time left Ralph Hasenhuttl beaming. ‘He feels and smells where the opponent can get problems or into trouble,’ he said. It would have been easy to replace Hasenhuttl after the 9-0 drubbing by Leicester, but the decision to stick with the astute Austrian is paying off. With four wins, two draws and two defeats in their past eight games, they have opened up a fourpoint gap on the relegation zone. Ings is vital to Hasenhuttl’s 4-2-2-2 system, and has scored exactly half of Southampton’s goals. Hasenhuttl will not overplay him. Ings was rested for the win at Chelsea, as was substitute Moussa Djenepo, who came on and changed the game. That is a luxury not available to Roy Hodgson, with patched-up Palace missing six regulars. Hodgson set them up perfectly to thwart the hosts, with Tomkins giving them the lead. Hodgson smiled at Ings’s goal. While England manager, he handed him his only England cap, and he tried to sign him for Palace. ‘That was no surprise, was it?’ he said. ‘He is a goalscorer.’