Albion Analytics: Georginio Rutter

Main Club Sponsor

TICKETS

SHOP

The numbers behind the highly rated Frenchman's time with Leeds.

2024-08-30T06:00+01:00

Georginio Rutter made his debut for Albion in the win over Manchester United. 📷 by Paul Hazlewood.

Albion confirmed the signing of Georginio Rutter this transfer window after a hugely impressive campaign with Leeds United.

It continues the trend of investing in youth and potential: Rutter (22) was the seventh permanent signing for Albion this window, all under 25, while it is reportedly Albion’s most expensive transfer window ever.

Rutter, a Rennes academy graduate who spent two-and-a-half seasons at Hoffenheim before joining Leeds, has already played in three of Europe’s top-five leagues (Premier League, Ligue 1, Bundesliga).

He was Leeds’ second-most played outfielder last season in the Championship, behind captain Ethan Ampadu, starting 44 out of 46 games and accumulating 3,736 league minutes. There was a good reason why Daniel Farke played Rutter almost every week: he’s ridiculously creative.

Rutter’s 16 assists were the second-most in the Championship, only behind Ipswich’s Leif Davis (18), and the most league assists by a Leeds player in a single season since Robert Snodgrass in 2008-09 (also 16).

Georginio Rutter celebrates with Joao Pedro after the Brazilian netted a late winner against Manchester United. 📷 by Paul Hazlewood.

He is not like-for-like, as a different type of midfielder, but in many ways Rutter can fill the creative shoes left behind by Pascal Gross, consistently Albion’s top creator for the past seven seasons — he joined Borussia Dortmund earlier this window.

A standout of Rutter’s game was how consistently he was able to provide for specific teammates, notably Crysensio Summerville and Dan James, the exact profile of quick winger that Brighton have plenty of. Rutter created 30 chances and assisted six goals for Summerville last season, with only Leif Davis to Conor Chaplin at Ipswich (seven goals) a more fruitful assister-goalscorer combination.

Similarly, he assisted James four times (from 14 chances created), which meant Rutter was the only player in the Championship to assist two different teammates more than three times.

Of course, raw numbers only tell a partial picture, influenced by team quality (and league quality). Rutter was playing in one of the best teams in the league with a stacked forward unit — Leeds finished third on 90 points, only the second time in Championship history that a team had reached that threshold and not been automatically promoted.

Georginio Rutter joined Albion on a five-year deal. 📷 by Paul Hazlewood.

However, looking at Rutter’s output as a percentage of Leeds’ overall numbers, and his quality still shines through. The Frenchman ranked fifth in the Championship for highest proportion of team assists, he played 30% of Leeds’ through balls and had the highest individual total for those in the league, accounting for 28% of Farke's team's take-ons.

He is quite a specific playmaker, an infrequent crosser but rather a No 10 who does his best work when he receives the ball in advanced central areas and can release runners in-behind. He can devastate disjointed defences in transition too. Only six players in the Championship last season recorded a minimum of 120 progressive carries, 150 progressive passes played and 200 progressive passes received — Rutter was the youngest of the six.

Across the first 31 matchdays of last season, Rutter created at least one chance in 29 games. He had a tougher end to the season, failing to create any chances in 6 out of 18 games, but as a young player still developing and learning the style of a new league, his output was impressive.

Rutter will bring some much-needed ball-carrying quality too. Last season, Brighton recorded the lowest dribble completion rate in the entire Premier League (41.5%), despite their number of dribbles attempted rising in each of the last three seasons.

The Frenchman signed for Albion after a terrific season with Leeds United. 📷 by Paul Hazlewood.

Rutter, the most-fouled player in the Championship last season (with his 113 fouls drawn the most since Callum O’Hare’s 118 in 2020-21), recorded 28 shot-creating actions and five goal-creating actions from dribbles in 2023-24. He ranked second in the league for those dribbling metrics.

In fact, Rutter was fouled four times in the Championship play-off final, which Leeds lost to Southampton, the joint-most times with Kyle Walker-Peters. No player on either side engaged in more duels than Rutter (18 — he won half of them).

Albion head coach Fabian Hurzeler says he’s had Rutter on his radar since the 22-year-old’s Hoffenheim days. One can only imagine the tactical plans Hurzeler has been crafting for him.