Daniel Farke repeats Leeds United striker warning as he vows to be 'relentless' in seeking respect

The French forward brought cheers from the Elland Road crowd and ensured he would take centre stage in the post-game highlight reels with a fancy bit of skill in the first half. The scoreline was just 1-0 in the home side's favour when Rutter controlled the ball right on the touchline with a flick of his boot behind his standing leg. Not everyone joined in with the cheering in the West Stand, however. Farke temporarily lost his composure, failing to hide his irritation with his striker, who has previously been spoken to by the manager about ensuring to be respectful of opponents.

Asked how he could help Rutter to develop good habits without removing the joy from the youngster's game, Farke responded: "Relentless talking and explaining." He went on: "I liked with the first goal and then the second goal, our confidence was back, we were enjoying ourselves, enjoying our football and I want my players to enjoy what we're doing. We should also entertain supporters and Georgi is the type of player you want to come and see performing at the stadium. It's fine margins to make sure you don't embarrass the opponent, I want my players also make sure we're respectful, respect the situation Birmingham are in and always show class, without unnecessary things to fool the opponent just because we're in a good mood."

Farke's main issue with what Rutter did is that it could backfire on him if the opposition decide to take umbrage. Earlier on in the season Farke went onto the Elland Road pitch at full-time to have a chat with Rutter about flicks and tricks and how they could be perceived as disrespectful, although on that occasion he insisted he had no sense that the 21-year-old had crossed the line. Rutter has been a vital cog in the attacking wheel for Leeds this season, scoring four goals, setting up nine and creating a host of chances, so the manager's desire to keep him out of harm's way is understandable.

"I think such a trick is nice for the supporters but if it doesn't make sense in the game and you can stop the ball in the proper way, do this, in order not to provoke the opponent to be there with a heavy foul against him or something like this," Farke added. "This is what we can provoke sometimes. Yes he has the ability to do this but to entertain with magic touches he should leave this to his manager."

Rutter’s performance otherwise satisfied his manager, playing in a number 10 role behind Patrick Bamford and doing everything Farke asked of him. “We got the feeling he has improved in many, many areas in his game, first of all in his fitness level, so that he can cover more ground right now. Secondly in his tidiness with the ball and his confidence level because in the beginning of the season, when there were tight areas sometimes he had unnecessary loss of the ball. He’s much tidier right now and also his positional discipline where we want him when he plays deeper is much more disciplined and much, much more spot on for what we need. I think today he fulfilled the role in a nearly perfect way. Also that we could perhaps surprise Birmingham today a little bit with him in a slightly deeper role, so this was at least a plan but you can have a plan, the most important topic is that the player brings it on the pitch and he's fulfilled all my expectations today and I'm pretty, pretty pleased with Georgi’s performance today.”