Leeds United are four games into the 2024/25 Championship season after they failed to win promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt.
The Whites have won two and drawn two of their opening four matches in the second tier, with wins against Sheffield Wednesday and Hull in their last two.
It has been a solid enough start to the campaign after a summer transfer window that was full of turbulence for Daniel Farke and his first-team squad.
Glen Kamara, Crysencio Summerville, Georginio Rutter, and Archie Gray, who were all key cogs in the system last season, were all sold, to Rennes, West Ham United, Brighton & Hove Albion, and Tottenham Hotspur respectively.
That meant that the Whites had to dip into the market to sign Jayden Bogle, Largie Ramazani, Manor Solomon, Ao Tanaka, Alex Cairns, Joe Rothwell, Isaac Schmidt, and Joe Rodon.
Farke had to bring in attacking reinforcements to bolster his squad after Rutter and Summerville moved to the Premier League, particularly due to the creativity that the former provided through the middle of the pitch for the Yorkshire-based outfit last term.
Georginio Rutter’s creativity for Leeds
The French wizard, who is now looking to make his mark in the top-flight with Brighton, showcased his creative quality throughout the 2023/24 campaign for Leeds.
Rutter had produced zero goals and one assist in 11 matches for the Whites in his short time in the Premier League with them during the second half of the 2022/23 season.
The club’s relegation to the Championship and the arrival of Farke, with his possession-based style of play, allowed the former Hoffenheim man to flourish at Elland Road.
|
23/24 Championship |
Georginio Rutter |
|---|---|
|
Appearances |
45 |
|
Goals |
6 |
|
Assists |
15 |
|
Big chances created |
22 |
|
Key passes per game |
1.9 |
|
Pass accuracy |
69% |
As you can see in the table above, the 22-year-old wizard was directly involved in 21 goals in 45 appearances during the regular season, whilst he also scored against Norwich in the second leg of the play-off semi-finals.
Rutter racking up 15 assists from 22 ‘big chances’ created also suggests that his teammates let him down at times with their wasteful finishing, as they did not make the most of the high-quality opportunities that he created.
In fact, the French starlet ranked within the top 2% of forwards in the Championship for Expected Assisted Goals per 90 (0.29) and the top 2% for shot-creating actions per 90 (4.41), which shows that he was one of the most creative players in his position in the division.
One player who did manage more assists in the Championship last season, though, was a player who was once fumbled by Leeds and Jesse Marsch.
Leeds fumbled Leif Davis
The Whites swooped to sign the teenager from Morecambe U18s in the summer of 2018 and Marcelo Bielsa almost immediately handed him opportunities in the first-team.
Davis featured five times for the senior side, including four matches in the Championship, during the 2018/19 campaign, despite not having played any first-team football for Morecambe prior to his move to Elland Road.
The promising young left-back then played three times in the second tier the following season, as Leeds won the title and earned promotion to the Premier League.
That rise to the top-flight restricted Davis’ chances in the first-team and, after two Premier League outings in the 2020/21 campaign, he was sent out on loan to Bournemouth in the 2021/22 season.
The English defender produced one assist in 12 appearances in the Championship for the Cherries, where he was dubbed an “animal” by boss Scott Parker, in the second half of that term and returned to find Jesse Marsch in charge, having left with Bielsa at the helm.
That summer, in 2022, Marsch decided that Davis did not have a future under him at Elland Road and sanctioned a permanent transfer to League One side Ipswich Town.
The Tractor Boys reportedly saw off Championship competition to secure his services for a fee of at least £1m, and it is a move that has turned out to be a blinder by Kieran McKenna.
Marsch and Leeds must regret cashing in on the exciting full-back because his career has gone from strength to strength since moving on from the club, to the point where he is now playing in the league above them.
Leif Davis’ form for Ipswich
The left-footed wizard hit the ground running in Suffolk with an eye-catching return of three goals and 14 assists in 43 League One appearances during the 2022/23 campaign.
His attacking impetus from left-back helped Ipswich to finish second in the division and earn promotion up to the Championship, where Davis thrived last season.
The Tractor Boys went on to finish second in the league and beat Leeds, who placed third, to an automatic promotion place, with the former Whites man playing a pivotal role in their success.
In the 2023/24 campaign, as you can see in the graphic above, Davis racked up a staggering 21 assists in the Championship for Ipswich, which was six more than Rutter managed for Leeds in the same league.
The 24-year-old star was shortlisted for the PFA Player of the Year award alongside the French attacking midfielder, although the award was eventually won by Summerville.
Davis, unsurprisingly, ranked within the top 1% of full-backs in the division for assists per 90 (0.43) and the top 1% for shot-creating actions per 90 (4.91), averaging more of both per 90 than Rutter did.
These statistics suggest that Leeds would have had an even greater creative threat than the now-Brighton star had Marsch not cashed in on the defender back in 2022, due to his exceptional statistics as a creator of goals for the Tractor Boys last season.
Davis, who has registered one assist in three matches in the Premier League this term, has developed into a sensational attacking threat from left-back over the last two years or so, and the Whites selling him for £1m+ currently looks like it was a huge error on their part.