Danny Ings’s brief when parachuted into Rush Green was to provide the firepower to keep West Ham in the Premier League, but, in fashion typical of a season where nothing has quite gone to plan, the striker instead popped up here to poke a vital goal in their quest for European glory.
Ings’s close-range finish late in the first half, his first-ever goal in Europe, was not enough to earn a first-leg lead, as Hugo Cuypers rammed in a leveller after the break. But on a night when a much-changed West Ham were second best to an impressive Gent, a 1-1 draw represents a decent result to take back to the London Stadium next week.
This was Ings’s first European start in more than seven years, the intervening period having brought only a handful of Champions League cameos for Liverpool, as well as the omission from Jurgen Klopp’s squad for the 2018 final, which the forward says left him “heartbroken”.
“I’m always trying to be alert in those positions and I prefer those goals to goals from outside the box,” Ings said of his back-post tap-in. “That’s my job, I need to be in the right positions and it fell to me tonight. It’s been a few years since I was last in Europe, so to be back in it and score tonight is really nice.”
The goal was one crafted in the image of a player whose greatest strength has always been instinct. A Belgian ballboy was, weirdly, the orchestrator, teeing up Vladimir Coufal for a quick-throw. The Czech found Jarrod Bowen, similarly alert as Gent’s backline dozed, and the winger picked out an unmarked Ings from the byline, who just stayed onside.
Manager David Moyes said: “It is the reason we brought Danny in, because he has got goals in him. He is more of a penalty-box striker. If we create chances, he will take them.”
And that remains the big ‘if’. This was only Ings’s third goal since his £12million arrival from Aston Villa, the previous two having come within the space of a few minutes against Nottingham Forest in a vital win back in late February.
Were you to lay out a small portion of Belgian frites end to end, the length of the culinary artwork would likely surpass the combined distance of Ings’s three goals — and that is no gripe. In their season-long struggle, West Ham have lacked creativity, yes, but also a ruthless streak that neither the raw Gianluca Scamacca nor Michail Antonio possess.
The problem is that West Ham are not a team whose centre-forward spends a great deal of time in the opposition box. Even at their seldom-seen best, Moyes’s side have never been known for pinning defences in, like Arsenal or Manchester City, for recycling possession in that torturous final-third arc, for suffocating and probing until the gaps appear.
At Fulham last weekend, as the Hammers returned to the sit-in-and-counter philosophy that still suits them best, Ings’s average position on the field was almost identical to that of Declan Rice in holding midfield and deeper than right-back Coufal. Even here, the visitors only looked like stealing a second goal on the break once Antonio had replaced Ings with half-an-hour to go.
That Antonio began the night on the bench suggests he will lead the line when Arsenal visit the London Stadium on Sunday, the Jamaican’s hard-running and hold-up play an outlet that will surely be needed, even if it means sacrificing the player you would back most to take a chance in game where West Ham might not get many.
Combine the two, and you would have one hell of a player. For now, it is another dilemma Moyes is yet to solve.
