Daniel Farke accused of unexpected Leeds United mind games after what he said about Georginio Rutter
Daniel Farke could have been playing mind games with Rotherham when he said Georginio Rutter was a “major doubt” for Leeds United last week, according to Phil Hay.
As quoted by BBC Sport on 23 November, Farke said the 21-year-old forward had an abdominal strain and returned from international duty with France’s Under-21s with the issue.
However, the ex-Hoffenheim forward ended up starting away against Rotherham last Friday and ended up completing 70 minutes and assisting Crysencio Summerville’s first-half goal.
Speaking on The Square Ball podcast on Monday (27 November, 8m50s), Hay said: “He’s had an abdominal strain.
“He played one game for the France Under-21s but not the second [in the international break]. I was looking through the line-ups at the start of the week and he was listed as being on the bench but we were asking Farke after the Rotherham game how it had been as he’d been implying Rutter had to withdraw early [from international duty] because of this abdominal problem.
“When we spoke to Farke on Wednesday, he was very much implying – I felt – that Rutter was going to miss out.
“I don’t know if it was a bit of psychology or a little bit of mind games to make Rotherham think but that hasn’t really been the way Farke’s operated so far. He’s been pretty straight with his team news and his injury updates.”
No mind games here
As Hay says, Farke isn’t the kind of manager to do that.
He’s a very straight-talking German who isn’t afraid to dish out reliable updates on his injured players.
The Leeds manager only said that Rutter was a “major doubt” – he didn’t actually rule him out of the game against Rotherham.
If he returned from international duty with that injury then that’s that. He’s obviously recovered in time to play against Rotherham or was maybe getting through the game on pain killers, which is why he only lasted 70 minutes.
It was, after all, his shortest appearance of the season when starting a Championship game.
Rutter has been a big player for Leeds this season so it’s worth playing him when Farke needs to.
The worry is that Patrick Bamford will come in to replace him if he’s not available and we reckon a lot of Leeds fans would rather see Rutter start with two broken legs than see a fully-fit Bamford in the starting line-up right now.
In other Leeds United news, Adam Pope admitted he was in “denial” as a new “massive, massive worry” has emerged for the Whites.