Brighton’s incoming £40m striker doesn’t score many goals – but could be a great signing all the same
Brighton are about to break their transfer record for a low-scoring striker - but they’ll likely fall in love with him even if he doesn’t get many goals.
You won’t find too many dry eyes at Elland Road when Georginio Rutter completes his move to Brighton & Hove Albion. The 22-year-old Frenchman is thrilling to watch and has an eye for the spectacular that makes him perfect cult hero material, and the 22 goals and assists he notched up in the Championship last year made him one of Leeds United’s most important players. But now he’s moving on – and it’s time to see if he can crack the Premier League.
As first reported by David Ornstein in The Athletic (paywalled), Brighton have triggered a £40m release clause in Rutter’s contract after failing to negotiate the price down with initial offers. It’s a fee that will make him the Seagulls’ new record signing, comfortably breaking the mark set when they signed Yakuba Minteh from Newcastle United earlier in the transfer window. That means the expectations will be high for the young forward but he has the tools to be worth every penny, and they’ll love him on the south coast if he continues the soaring upward trajectory he was on last season.
Most outlets covering the transfer describe Rutter as a striker, but that’s only half of the truth. He goes down on the team-sheet as a centre-forward but isn’t often the furthest man forward – instead, he likes to drop into deeper areas or towards the flanks to collect the ball. And then he likes to run with it, often with spectacular results.
Rutter is not a natural goalscorer, although he has a handful of sublime finishes on his highlight reel. He hit the back of the net six times in the league last season from an xG of 12.3, the kind of numbers that would normally have scouts shredding his file before anyone saw it, but while that’s certainly an area in which he can improve his game, scoring isn’t really his job – even if the goals he does score tend to be special, like this glorious effort in a pre-season friendly against Valencia:
Instead, Rutter is a provider and, more specifically, a player who can blast through opposing defences once he gets the ball down and a half a yard of space to run at. He managed 16 assists last season, many of them the result of surging runs or lightning-quick turns which sent defenders going in completely the wrong direction. He has one instinct when he gets on the ball – to get it towards goal fast and to try and cut the defence out of the equation as quickly as possible.
Rarely does Rutter take the simple or economical option. On average, last season, he passed the ball just under 25 times per game, which is almost laughably low – as was his pass completion percentage, which stood at just 67.1%. That’s because he almost never looks for a quick lay-off or a straightforward pass. If he’s playing the ball to a team-mate, it’s an attempt at a killer ball, and it’s more likely that he’s just going to try and beat two defenders on his own anyway. Fortunately, he has the talent and ball control on the run to do just that.
New Brighton manager Fabian Hürzeler tried a few combinations of players in pre-season, but for the last two matches (1-0 and 4-0 wins respectively over QPR and Villarreal) he went for a three-man attack featuring João Pedro and Kaoru Mitoma operating either side of Danny Welbeck. It’s more than likely that Rutter would be expected to take Welbeck’s place, dropping behind the wide forwards to provide them with chances and to take defenders on and generate space – although he could conceivably target Pedro’s position on the left wing as well.
Wherever he lines up, Rutter is the kind of player who will provide some jaw-dropping moments on the south coast. He’s possessed of the kind of vision, spark and daring that makes him a vessel of pure joy with the ball at his feet – the only real question is whether he can work on his finishing sufficiently to become a serious goal threat in his own right, and whether those ball-carrying skills will look quite as good up against some of the best centre-halves in the world. If they hold up, then Brighton fans won’t bemoan a penny of that £40m transfer fee.