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Leeds United‘s relegation from the Premier League last season will live long in the memory of many supporters but new head coach Daniel Farke has done a tremendous job at bringing Elland Road back to life again for the first time since Marcelo Bielsa knelt at pitchside.
Bringing in the likes of Joel Piroe, Ethan Ampadu and Glen Kamara has worked wonders for the Peacocks this season and Farke has even managed to turn 17-year-old Archie Gray into a star in Yorkshire, having brought the Scottish teenager up from the rich tapestry of the club’s academy.
However, there is another young Scot plying his trade in Leeds’ youth setup who may be destined for a call-up to the first team sooner rather than later, and he could be coming for Georginio Rutter‘s place too.
Georginio Rutter’s stats this season
Leeds United have been scoring goals for fun this season under Farke and are currently the fifth-highest goalscorers in the Championship behind Ipswich Town, Leicester City, Norwich City and Plymouth Argyle.
Nevertheless, the goals have been quite evenly spread, with Summerville topping the charts for the Whites with six goals, which is one more than second-place Piroe. In fact, Leeds have had twelve different players find the net in 15 league matches.
While a blend of different goalscorers is never too much of an issue as long as the team are winning games, there has been a noticeable lack of potency from the number ‘9’ position and Rutter in particular.
The Frenchman moved to Elland Road for a club record fee of £36.5m back in January but failed to have any impact at all in his debut campaign, scoring zero goals and registering the same number of assists.
Thankfully for Leeds, Rutter has shown a little more promise this term and has managed to bag three goals and five assists in 14 Championship appearances but a goal every 4.67 games is still far from an ideal ratio for a centre-forward in what is shaping up to be a strong race for promotion. The 21-year-old has scored the same number of league goals as centre-back Pascal Struijk this term.
From an xG total of five in the 2023/24 campaign, Rutter has converted three opportunities according to FBref. His xG per 90 stands at 0.38 but the Frenchman is only scoring 0.23 goals per 90, meaning he is currently underperforming in front of goal. Additionally, the former Hoffenheim attacker is scoring 0.09 goals per shot this term and is averaging merely 1.09 shots on target per 90.
It is clear that Farke has been tolerant of Rutter’s goalscoring woes because of his output when creating chances but there is a player on Leeds United’s books this season that could be coming for that number ‘9’ spot.
Lewis Pirie’s stats this season
It was confirmed during the summer that Leeds had managed to secure the services of Aberdeen’s sensational frontman Lewis Pirie.
Transfer expert Fabrizio Romano revealed that the two clubs had agreed a £200k fee for the player on a three-year deal, while the Italian journalist went on to describe the 16-year-old as a “rising star” who had bagged a quite remarkable 51 goals for club and country throughout the 2022/23 season.
At the time, TEAMtalk editor James Marshment tweeted how impressive Leeds’ coup of the prolific teenager was, calling Pirie “one of the most in-demand young strikers around”.
There had also been interest from Premier League sides Everton, Brighton and Hove Albion and Fulham, as reported by the BBC, although the 5 foot 10 forward chose Leeds in the end despite Aberdeen chairman Alan Burrows claiming that the Dons did “everything they possibly could” to keep him around.
The youngster has already had an excellent start to life in Yorkshire, scoring three goals and recording one assist in five appearances for the U18s in the Premier League, averaging a goal every 108 minutes of action. Furthermore, Pirie has been bumped up to Scotland’s U17s and made two appearances for his country back in August, according to Transfermarkt.
While it’s still too early to tell the exact trajectory a player’s career will take, Pirie is already easily one of the best strikers in his age bracket and could have a massive future ahead of him.
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