'Too angry' - Leeds United training has required some cooling down from Daniel Farke this week

Blame is easily apportioned when Leeds United’s form is crumbling, but Daniel Farke and his staff are trying to stop Georginio Rutter putting all of that weight on himself. The 22-year-old has failed to score or assist since returning from hernia surgery as his side’s automatic promotion push came to a grinding halt with two wins in eight matches.

Rutter has worn his heart on his sleeve all season. This has meant his puppy-dog, boundless energy has endeared him to fans during the good times, but he’s been unable to protect himself from the painful losses.

Farke can see how Rutter took the team’s and his own poor run-in to heart. Before his hernia surgery and that final international break, the Frenchman had served up eight assists and two goals in nine outings.

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

To then revert to nothing in the subsequent eight matches says everything about how and why they are struggling in the final third.

Farke said: “Overall, it's also important to give him the sign he shouldn't be too angry and too disappointed with himself because who should be blamed for this? He’s playing an outstanding season.

“He's one of our key players. He was in the Team of the Season. He is there with an unbelievable amount of assists, with several goals, with lots of creativity, he was one of our main parts.

“It's unlucky and fate the injury was there and the surgery was needed during the international break. He wanted to come back as quickly as possible and was forced then, more or less, to go into the games and, yes, he's also a pretty emotional player.

“He’s a confidence player who feels it and then it was quite normal in the first one, two, three games after his surgery. He played, more or less, without training, was not at his best and this made something with this confidence.”

There will be no psychological games from Farke and his staff as they work on keeping 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 sign ‘no, don't overthink the situation too much. You can't be blamed for this. No one can be blamed for this. It's coming back.’ [This was] to give him some confidence, but he's an emotional player, his 22nd birthday was just a few weeks ago.

“For him, first full season in English football, sometimes you're struggling then to adapt to a difficult situation. No one can be blamed for this. This is also why, in the last two games, I gave him the chance to find his rhythm back because, on the training pitch, he looks good.

“He has no problems anymore. It's more like he needs to find the self-confidence back in the games with some good actions and if that's not possible, then on the training pitch.

"We'll have to work with him because we definitely need Georgi back at his best or at least close to his best. It was definitely also a key factor that sadly he needed surgery in the last international break.

“Hopefully, the next eight days will be beneficial for him in order to gain a bit of momentum and also confidence back, but to win confidence back I have no secret and no psychological games on my side will be. It's more like hard work, gain confidence on the training pitch and then bring it into the game to win your confidence back because we desperately need him back at his best.”