Phil Hay: Leeds United have unearthed the new Adel Taarabt at Elland Road
The Athletic journalist Phil Hay has compared Leeds United star Georginio Rutter to ex-QPR star Adel Taarabt for his “off-the-cuff” flair.
Rutter, 21, has enjoyed a stellar start to the season playing in what seems like a free role in the middle of Daniel Farke’s attack.
He was in particularly good form on Saturday in the 4-1 win over Huddersfield and his style of play has led to Hay saying that he can see traces of Moroccan ace Taarabt in the Frenchman.
Speaking on the latest episode of The Square Ball podcast on Monday (30 October), host Dan Moyland said: “Positionally – now I am saying this tongue in cheek, of course, but I think there may be a crumb of truth in there – Rutter is less of a position and more of a vibe. He kind of just does what he wants, doesn’t he?
“He just makes magical things happen.”
Hay replied, saying: “Well I was just thinking about this afterwards – he’s a bit of a free spirit, really, isn’t he? The Championship has become such a tactically structured division where everything’s drilled.
“I think to play the percentages, to maximise overall team performance, as opposed to [that] – and the player I was thinking of was Abel Taarabt at QPR, who got them promoted under Neil Warnock – it was quite similar really. He just did his own thing.
“It’s not that Rutter doesn’t have a place in the system and it’s not as if he doesn’t know what he’s doing and it’s not as if he’s not contributing to that. But I do like the fact you get that off-the-cuff bit of flair that isn’t that evident right the way through the division.”
Who saw this coming?
Rutter was pretty uninspiring last season when he joined from Hoffenheim in a club-record deal.
However, when you look back at the second half of last season in the Premier League, it’s easy to see why Rutter didn’t impress.
Victor Orta shouldn’t have signed him, really.
It was a fancy signing that you’d expect a club that was completely safe from relegation to make. ‘A young French number 10 from the Bundesliga? Might as well take a chance on him’.
But Leeds were in a relegation battle and they didn’t need players for the future last January, they needed signings for what was the here and now.
Rutter then had to play under four different managers in the space of a few months: Jesse Marsch, Michael Skubala, Javi Gracia and Sam Allardyce.
It’s no wonder it didn’t click.
Now he has a man in charge of him in Farke who knows what he’s good at and utilises to his team’s strength.
He’s now looking like a pretty incredible footballer.
in other Leeds United news, an unusual clause not possible in one country has been used on one Whites loanee, with a permanent exit now on the cards.