Phil Hay possesses one skill that Leeds United lacks, and he is unable to perform the……..

Phil Hay has suggested that Leeds United would have wanted Georginio Rutter to have scored more than two Championship goals this season.

The French striker has been in inspired form so far this year, registering seven goal involvements and creating 33 chances for his teammates, but has struggled to convert his own chances at times, having only found the net twice in 13 appearances.

While Leeds as a side have shone on the attack and have scored 24 goals between them, their recognised striker has been outscored by the likes of Joel Piroe, Dan James and Crysencio Summerville and although Hay has praised his performances, he believes there is room for improv

Speaking on the Square Ball Podcast (30 October, 3:50) he said: “The more and more that I look at Rutter particularly the creative side of his game, he’s not scoring a huge number of goals and I think for a number nine you’d want more than two for this stage of the season.

“Particularly because Leeds have scored 24 across the Championship to this point but he’s just an absolute level apart when it comes to reading the game and seeing what’s going on around him.

“He seems a yard ahead of everybody when it comes to his positioning and his thought process as well.”

Nitpicking

It is clear from how Hay talks about Rutter that he doesn’t think that this is too big an issue in the striker’s game as he is more than making up for his own lack of goal threat with the creative side of his game so far this season.

But the Frenchman does need to start chipping in with a few more goals sooner rather than later, after all, he was signed for a club record £35.5 million fee [Sky Sports] with the expectation of firing the Whites to Premier League safety, so will be expected to find the net in the Championship.

Currently, his troubles in front of the goal haven’t mattered because everything Summerville is touching is finding its way into the back of the net and before that the same was true of Piroe, but there will come a time when it is Rutter’s turn to dig the Whites out of trouble.

It almost feels like the Leeds United man needs a couple of strikes to find their way into the net off of his shin or just a few strokes of luck to get him feeling confident in front of the goal because currently, he is underperforming his xG by over two goals