Editor’s note: Nancy Froston will be joining Phil Hay to help with our Leeds United coverage — you can click on her profile to follow her work from Elland Road and the EFL
As Crysencio Summerville skipped through dangling defending legs and prodded a shot over Viktor Johansson to put Leeds United 2-0 up against Rotherham United, Elland Road regulars might have felt that they had seen that exact goal before.
And in reality, that is because they have — time and again, Summerville’s movement to latch onto a Georginio Rutter through ball has produced a similar finish. No pair across the top four divisions in English football has had a partnership quite like that between Leeds’ Frenchman and Dutchman, with that goal the seventh assist that Rutter has provided for Summerville.
Three days later, against Swansea City, Summerville was at it again, this time fed by Ilia Gruev before a shimmy of the shoulders and an arced right-footed shot put Leeds 1-0 up and on their way to second place in the table. Though Blackburn Rovers’ Sammie Szmodics leads the way in the race for the Golden Boot, the regularity of Summerville’s game-changing performances from the wing has stood out in the Championship.
Even if the Golden Boot eludes him, he should rival Leicester City’s Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall when it comes to the player of the season vote — a brilliant rise from a player who at first struggled at Leeds under Marcelo Bielsa, got more minutes under Jesse Marsch and is now flying under Daniel Farke.
Everything Summerville does works so well because as a team Leeds are devastatingly effective in getting him into dangerous areas and the most lethal counter-attacking team in the division. No player picks him out so naturally as Rutter in a partnership that is as fun as it is deadly.
Summerville’s November goal in a 1-1 draw with Rotherham was a recent example of the way they link and it was near enough copy and paste in subsequent goals against Coventry City (1-1 draw in December) and Rotherham again (3-0 win in February), all assisted by Rutter. While there is some variation in the finishes (watch all three below), the movement and understanding between Rutter and Summerville has been building steadily all season, with seven of Rutter’s 10 league assists coming for Summerville, who has scored 16 goals in all competitions.
Summerville is outperforming his expected goals (xG) tally, with 13 open-play league goals scored from an xG of 11.4. He favours a far-post finish with his right foot (11 of his 14 league goals have been right-foot finishes) when coming in from the left flank, which is the area that Rutter feeds him most often from. The graphic below shows where Summerville has taken his shots — most often left of centre.
And while Rutter to Summerville is a well-versed action of feeding the half-space between the wing and the edge of the box (right-hand graphic below), the partnership works just as well in return with Summerville creating chances by cutting the ball back to Rutter in or at the top of the box (left-hand graphic below).
Rutter’s goal in a 3-0 win over Cardiff City in January came from a Summerville assist and, while there is room for improvement in his finishing with his five league goals coming from an xG of 9.9, he is the creative heartbeat at the centre of Farke’s team.
“Good players always play well together, especially when you have offensive players who more or less see and judge a game with the same eyes and thoughts,” Farke said of the pair’s working relationship. “Those are pretty creative players, brave players and are doing some crazy things on the pitch. They do the unexpected but it’s like sometimes they have the same vision in situations and the same technique and precision find each other. It’s not in each and every moment, otherwise they would go for the Ballon d’Or… so there is still room for improvement.
“They are really good players but it always helps when they have a good understanding off the pitch. This spirit helps with the offensive players when they play together, they both have the soft skills that they are happy for a team-mate to score or to shine and be in the spotlight. I like this mentality, it’s crucial. They still have a healthy selfishness of wanting to score goals but they are also happy on the other side to celebrate (with a team-mate) if they can make the pass or the second-last pass.”
Discussions of Ballon d’Or nominations aside, Rutter and Summerville are high-quality players and though the action of one feeding the other is simple in principle, it requires perfect movement and timing to work as often as it does. The image below is from Leeds’ 3-0 win over Birmingham City in January. Though this chance did not result in a goal — instead drawing a save from John Ruddy — it illustrates the key elements of the partnership.
As Rutter progresses forward with the ball, Summerville looks at him as he holds and delays his run until the perfect moment.
Movement is vital to the slide-rule precision of this pass hitting the half space (highlighted above) behind Birmingham’s back line, as Summerville takes one touch and gets his shot off (see below). Summerville scores via a different provider in this game, showing nifty feet after a Junior Firpo cutback to score Leeds’ third.
There is no end to this type of link-up between Rutter and Summerville, two larger-than-life personalities who have found a complementary character on and off the field. At times it has looked as if they are playing their own game with the image below from the 3-0 win over Cardiff City in January the perfect example. Summerville plays a one-two with Rutter as he comes in from the left…
…taking out three defenders in the process as he latches on to Rutter’s aerial flick and volleys over the bar.
Fun and finesse are two healthy qualities to have in key players as Farke’s side enter a crucial portion of the season in the promotion race and while Summerville and Rutter continue in this form, defenders will struggle to stop them.
“You want those players who cheer everyone up and when you see them you just have to smile because they are the way they are,” said Farke.
“At my age, if you were to have Georginio Rutter or Cree Summerville the whole day then you would have a headache so the good thing is, when it is too much, I can hide in my office. But I hope that the older and more experienced players can tell them when it’s enough. But they are joking more or less every day and it’s great to have these characters at the club.”
Championship defenders are not seeing the funny side.
(Top photo: David Davies/PA Images via Getty Images)
