David Moyes believes Danny Ings can fire West Ham to Premier League survival, provided his team-mates give him the service.
Ings, signed from Southampton for £12million in January, faces his old club in a crucial relegation six-pointer on Sunday.
The 30-year-old has two West Ham goals to his name so far, both scored in the recent 4-0 victory over Nottingham Forest that was billed as a ‘must-win game’.
Moyes could do with another couple from Ings in another pivotal match as he continues to feel the heat at the foot of the table.
“Around the place he has made a huge difference, he’s a really good lad and people that know him say he is a great lad around the place,” said the Hammers boss.
“He is a proper goalscoring centre-forward, probably if I put it literally, a penalty-box striker. What we need to find is… being able to put the ball in the penalty box to give him the opportunity to score.
“If we do that then he will get himself some more goals. There’s other parts of games where we may need a different type of striker, where we are playing more on the counter-attack and it may not suit Ings quite as much.
“So we will try pick and choose the games where we think it will work with him. We have Michail (Antonio) as well, Gianluca (Scamacca) and I want the competition, I want them scoring and if they are then that’s no problem, they can keep their jersey – you are going to have to keep it going because we need to win.”
