‘Too angry’ – Leeds United training took some cooling down from Daniel Farke this week

It’s easy to apportion blame when Leeds United’s form collapses, but Daniel Farke and his staff are trying to prevent Georginio Rutter from putting all his weight on him. The 22-year-old has failed to score or assist since returning from hernia surgery as his side’s automatic promotion came to an abrupt halt with two wins in eight games.

Rutter wore his heart on his sleeve all season. This meant that his boundless puppy-dog energy endeared him to fans in the good times, but failed to protect him from painful losses.

Farke can see how Rutter has taken the team’s and his own poor match to heart. Before his hernia operation and the final international break, the Frenchman provided eight assists and two goals in nine outings.

READ MORE: Leeds United blast from central past to cup plans Archie Gray would have loved to join

To then come back to nothing in the subsequent eight games says everything about how and why they struggle in the final third.

Farke said: “Generally, it’s also important to signal to him that he shouldn’t be too upset and down on himself, because who should be blamed for that? He is having an amazing season.

“He is one of our key players. He was in the Team of the Season. He is there with an incredible amount of assists, with more goals, with a lot of creativity, he was one of our main parts.

“It’s bad luck and fate that the injury was there and it required surgery during the international break. He wanted to come back as quickly as possible and he had to then, more or less, get into the games and, yes, he is quite an emotional player as well.

“He’s a confident player who feels it and then he was pretty normal in the first, two, three games after the operation. He played, more or less, without training, he wasn’t at his best and that did something to that confidence.”

There will be no psychological games from Farke and his staff as they work to keep Rutter’s chin up before the trip to Norfolk. There will be words in his ear, as there have been throughout April, but hard work and trying to catch that first break is how Rutter digs his way out of this hole.

Farke said: “We tried to give him a ‘no, don’t overthink the situation. You can’t be blamed for that. No one can be blamed for that. Returns. (That was) to give him a bit of confidence, but he’s an exciting player, he turned 22 just a few weeks ago.

“For him, the first full season in English football, sometimes you then struggle to adapt to a difficult situation. No one can be blamed for that. That’s why in the last two games we gave him a chance to find his rhythm because on the training ground he looks good.

“He has no more problems. Rather he needs to find his confidence in games with some good action and if that is not possible then on the training ground.

“We will have to work with him because we definitely need Georgi back to his best or at least close to his best. It was definitely a key factor as well that unfortunately he needed a surgery during the last international break.

“Hopefully the next eight days will be good for him to gain a bit of momentum and also the confidence back, but to get the confidence back I have no secrets and there will be no psychological games on my part. It’s more like hard work, gaining confidence on the training pitch and then bringing it into the game to regain your confidence because we desperately need him back to his best.”