Micah Richards has criticised new Leeds United signing Georgie Rutter in his Daily Mail column after the French star attempted to win a penalty during Sunday’s 5-1 defeat to Crystal Palace – replays showing he clipped his own heels.
Rutter, 20, came on for the last 11 minutes of Sunday’s dismal showing at Elland Road. A game in which Leeds were much the better team in the first 45, only for Palace to run riot in the second half. They were ruthless, winning 5-1.
An awful, awful result. Leeds are just two points above the relegation zone with eight games to play, and Liverpool next at home on Monday. A game which comes around after the rest of our rivals have played, over the weekend.
Rutter has struggled since his £35m club-record move. Just 11 outings in total – and he went over in the penalty area in an attempt to win a spot-kick. Not given and rightly so. Richards criticised the Frenchman in his Mail column.
“Some people call it gamesmanship but let’s have it right for what it is: cheating. What I’ve seen leaves me furious. This tactic of attackers kicking their back legs — as Leeds striker Georginio Rutter appeared to do on Sunday.
“Trying to win penalties. It is a particular source of anger for me. I can promise you that if I was playing now and someone had tried to do that to me, we would be having a quiet word in the tunnel,” Richards said in his Mail article.
Richards criticises new Leeds signing Rutter for trying to win penalty
Things are just not clicking for Rutter and he will now know, that any kind of attempt at diving or going down too easily will not please his own set of fans. Leeds supporters despise cheating of this sort, and will not tolerate it.
It looks as if for the final eight games, Rutter is going to be sat on the bench and get the odd sub outing. All he can do is try to have an impact in the brief game time he is given – and then focus on impressing during pre-season.
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