Daniel Farke holds crunch Georginio Rutter talks after Leeds United struggles
Daniel Farke has urged Georginio Rutter to stop overthinking chances that fall his way after the forward struggled as Leeds United were held 0-0 by Sheffield Wednesday.
Rutter wasted a glorious chance for Leeds in the stalemate at Elland Road on Saturday [2 September] when getting his attempted lob horribly wrong after being played through on goal.
The 21-year-old cost Leeds a club-record fee of up to £36million when joining from Hoffenheim in January [BBC Sport], but he has scored just one goal in 18 appearances.
Farke revealed after the Sheffield Wednesday draw that he has held talks with Rutter: “I was a striker as well; you can’t really explain. [Leeds Live, 4 September].
“Sometimes you have times when you find it unbelievably difficult to use your chances to score, and sometimes you just have to look at the ball and the ball goes in anyhow. It feels a bit like Georginio is in this period.
“But I spoke to him and told him ‘listen, the solution is not to overthink things too much. When you have a situation, when you find it difficult to bring the ball in the back of the net, then don’t try to be too artificial in your approach’.”
Words of wisdom
Rutter was recruited in January with the aim of scoring the goals that would keep Leeds in the Premier League, but that did not prove the case.
Emphatically so, in fact, as he failed to find the net in any of his 11 appearances upon joining midway through the campaign.
Dropping down a division was supposed to provide a platform for Rutter to show what he is capable of, but that has also not been the case.
The France U21 international looked to have lifted some weight off his shoulders with a goal against Ipswich Town but has fired blanks in four appearances on either side.
Rutter’s terrible effort against Wednesday when he only had Devis Vasquez to beat sums up the point Farke is making with regard to the young attacker overthinking things.
Hopefully for the Frenchman, and indeed Leeds, those words of wisdom pay off in order for the goals to belatedly start flowing.
In other Leeds United news, Farke has opened up on Luis Sinisterra’s move to Bournemouth.