This season at Leeds United, Archie Gray has established himself as the starting right-back.
Though it’s not his strongest position, Gray has overcome competition from several more experienced players in his breakout year in the first team.
Luke Ayling, who has since left Elland Road, was replaced by Gray earlier in the campaign. Gray then stopped Djed Spence from getting a run in his ideal position following his injury return.
Then, in January, Connor Roberts was bought; however, he has experienced the same problems as the other two and has only made one league start since arriving from Burnley on deadline day.
In his first season of senior football, Gray has essentially been learning on the job as a right-back, a position he had played very infrequently in the development setup at Leeds and England.
While there have been occasional challenging situations, his growth in the part is evident to all, despite his initial nervousness about taking on the job.
Gray describes Rutter’s initial reaction upon learning that he was a right-back for Leeds.
In the most recent edition of the BBC podcast “My Mate’s a Footballer Podcast,” Gray and Patrick Bamford discussed Joe Wilkinson’s current season.
Given that he played a major role in Leeds’ starting lineup during the first two months of the season, Gray was questioned about how the move to full-back initially occurred.
Gray claims that after speaking with Daniel Farke, he entered the meeting room and, based on his observations of the midfield, believed he was not playing. However, Georginio Rutter confirmed that he was playing.
“Basically, before I played, the boss asked me if I had ever played right-back. I can’t recall the exact game, but it was before I started playing, so I said that I had, maybe one, against the U15s or U16s.
“Over the weekend, I went to the conference room and, based on my observation of midfield, I assumed I wasn’t playing. After Rutter gave me a quick tap and burst out laughing, I took another look at the sheet and saw I was playing right-back. I thought, “Oh my God.”
Although Gray has excelled at right back, his place at Leeds will be in midfield.
Although Gray’s transition to right-back has been impressive, his ideal position in the long run will undoubtedly be in central midfield.
Gray has acknowledged that he views himself as a box-to-box midfielder, and in recent weeks, great uncle Eddie has also hammered home the same point.
Eddie was on talkSPORT earlier this month, praising Gray for being man-of-the-match in the FA Cup loss against Chelsea from midfield, and he talked about how much better he will be when he gets back to his right position. He was correct, too.
“Archie is doing well!” he exclaimed. He is going to do better if he stays away from right-back. Although he is primarily a midfield player, you can tell that he had something in his locker when he recently showed up and scored the goal.
“He can take the ball and pass individuals.” He has performed admirably at right-back, but he will ultimately be playing in the middle of the park.
