Danny Ings will venture into the Barclays Premier League for the first time this season, and the Burnley star should shine. After being a key man in the claret’s promotion winning season from the Championship, he’s now looking to make a name for himself in the top tier of English football.
Ings came through the Bournemouth academy, and joined Burnley in 2011 aged 19 for a fee of around £1 Million. He failed to make much impact in his first two seasons at Burnley, with a lot of his appearances coming as substitute. In 48 games he scored just 6 goals. However, at the beginning of the 2013/14 season, star striker Charlie Austin was sold to QPR, meaning Ings had the chance he had been waiting for to impress at Turf Moor. This proved to be the making of him, as he finished the fourth top scorer of the championship with 21 goals. Forming a deadly strike partnership with Sam Vokes, the pair netted 41 times between them. Burnley in the end did achieve promotion, and this was largely due to Ings’ goals and assists.
In my opinion, Ings is the type of striker that fits the Premier League perfectly. Burnley fans would be used to his composure in front of goal, and his 21 championship goals show that he knows where the goal is. However, the Premiership is a much tougher and meaner league, with tougher and meaner defences, so goals will obviously be harder to come by. But he doesn’t just score goals, he’s an impressive dribbler too. He uses his pace to take the ball and carry it into the box with ease, meaning he sets himself up for goals aswell as setting others up. This means that he’s a versatile player, he can also play behind the striker if required. He prefers playing as the striker though, because of his ability in the air. Standing at just 5 ft 10 in he jumps well and this is shown as 5 of his 21 goals last season were headed.
Many people wouldn’t have thought that they were to see Danny Ings sporting a Burnley shirt this season. With clubs such as Liverpool interested, there was a lot of speculation regarding his future towards the back end of last season. However, with Burnley’s promotion Ings is now looking forward to his opening Premier League game against Chelsea at Turf Moor on Monday. I think that Danny Ings will have a good season this year, at just a tender age of 22 he is still in the early stage of his career so he will take the chance to taste the top flight and build up his experience.