Alan Shearer said during commentary on BBC One’s coverage of Leeds United’s 2-0 defeat to Fulham in the FA Cup that new signing Georginio Rutter lacked the strength to hold the ball up for his fellow attackers on Tuesday night.
Rutter, 20, joined Leeds in January for a club-record fee and has since clocked up seven appearances for Leeds. Only, his second start for the club since the £35m move from Hoffenheim – and there were plenty of positives from Rutter.
However, one thing he does lack that perhaps, Patrick Bamford or Rodrigo can offer, is a lack of strength. On a number of occasions, Rutter was beaten by the centre-back pairing of Tosin Adarabioyo and Tim Ream – purely by strength.
It means Leeds players in and around Rutter went ahead of him and when he lost it, they were out of position and Fulham had space to counter. On one occasion, 42 minutes in, he lost the ball and Shearer criticised the Frenchman.
“Rutter has got to be stronger up there, he’s got to do better. He’s the focal point, that has to stick. Players are going to be running off him, and they can’t do it if it isn’t going to stick,” Shearer said, during his role as a co-commentator.
Shearer: New Leeds signing Rutter lacks strength to hold ball up
There is more to Rutter’s game, obviously, than being a target man. But if he is to have any success in the Premier League, he needs to be able to show the strength required to stave off centre-back pressure and feed his teammates.
It will come with time. Adapting to the Premier League. A willing runner, Rutter did attempt to hold the ball-up and kept plugging away. He was unlucky not to score his first goal – tapping home, only for the goal to be hardly ruled out.
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