In Crystal Palace’s last outing against Southampton, a player who will be familiar to Roy Hodgson came back to haunt the 72-year-old.
Danny Ings.
Hodgson tried to sign the former Burnley and Liverpool man in the summer of 2018, only to see the England international – who was coincidentally handed his only cap by the Eagles boss – end up at Southampton for £20m, a decision which still irks the experienced manager to this day.
“I don’t know if I can really forgive him for not signing for us and then going to Southampton instead. I’ve still got a bee in my bonnet about that one.”
While, presumably, Hodgson will have been left thinking ‘what if’ after watching Ings’ fine form so far this season, the Palace manager witnessed first-hand just what he’s missing after the Saints No.9 posed a threat to the south Londoners all afternoon on Saturday.
Before kick-off in Palace’s meeting with Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side, the 27-year-old forward had netted 11 Premier League goals and 13 in all competitions, which is superb for a player turning out for a side in the bottom half of the top-flight.
Ings added one more to that tally when grabbing the equaliser against Palace to secure a 1-1 draw, and his efficient performance despite not being too heavily involved in the all-round play will presumably have left Hodgson kicking himself that he couldn’t bring the striker to Selhurst Park.
Aside from his goal, the Southampton star had six shots on Vicente Guaita’s goal – finding the target with two of them – while also completing one dribble.
In fact, Ings only had 29 touches – the second-fewest of any player to have started the game behind Max Meyer with 19 – although he showcased just how much of a goal threat he can be despite not being hugely involved.
Interestingly, the ex-Palace target had a shot with every 4.83 touches of the ball he had throughout the game, which tells you everything you need to know about how hard Ings tries to test the goalkeeper.
Seeing as the south Londoners are the second-lowest scorers in the league this term with 18 goals in 20 games, Hodgson will surely be ruing his failure to sign Ings after watching the Englishman cause his side huge problems.
In other news, this Crystal Palace player simply does not deserve to be criticised by supporters on Twitter…
