Liam Thomas

Sun 5 March 2023 11:10, UK

BBC Radio Leeds pundit John Newsome rinsed Georginio Rutter for his “naive” performance in the Leeds United loss to Chelsea in the Premier League on 4 March.

Speaking to BBC Radio Leeds Newsome confessed that he’s worried about Rutter’s attitude to playing in the Premier League, admitting he may be in for a rude awakening.

The pundit went on to say that the Frenchman looked lost against Chelsea and that his £35m price tag should warrant the forward to hit the ground running for Leeds United.

“Today, in all honesty, I thought he was lost. I thought there were parts of his game, he’s dropping a little bit too deep for me. And that’s where he’s got to learn the game. But he’s got to have help. He can’t do it all by himself, in terms of learning the game,” he told BBC Radio Leeds on 4 March after the loss at Stamford Bridge.

“Somebody’s got to help him from the touchline. Somebody’s got to direct him, somebody’s got to coach him. But then, he picks the ball up 30 yards from our goal and gets turned and tries to do a stepover on a centre-half or midfielder, and loses possession on the edge of our box. Just little things like that, where you look and it’s naive. It’s quite worrying for me, because I look and think, ‘wow, if you think you can play that kind of football in this league, then you’ve got a real rude awakening’.

“Now, if we had spent £3million or £4 million on him and he was a player we bought for potential, I get it. But £35million, for me, you’re spending £35 million, you’re buying somebody who hits the ground running and makes a massive difference to this football team. And I’m not seeing that.”

Positive.

There were a lot of positives to take from the loss against Chelsea on 4 March and it isn’t all doom and gloom for Whites waking up on Sunday morning.

Yes, a win would have been lovely and needed but the performance against the London club wasn’t all that bad and a 1-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge isn’t the worst.

Premier League fixtures against Brighton, Wolves, Arsenal, Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace will be the true test of what this squad can do under Javi Gracia.

A few wins from those games and things are starting to look a lot brighter in West Yorkshire, however, nothing is set in stone in the cruel and harsh Premier League, especially not with Leeds United.

With luck. Gracia’s influence on this Leeds United team will only grow in the coming weeks, it’s sometimes easy to forget just how little time he has had with the Whites.

In other Leeds United news, the club may now face a losing battle to keep their star player at Elland Road beyond the summer transfer window.

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