00:00 Anyway though, as you mentioned there, Archie Gray didn't have his best game in this encounter,
00:05 but he was playing in a position he's perhaps not too familiar with,
00:09 you know, sort of a number 10, right just behind the strikers.
00:12 It's an interesting one that. He's very, very versatile, clearly is Archie Gray.
00:17 So is that something where, as you mentioned before, he could play there long term,
00:21 or is he more suited to his defensive role perhaps at right back where he's played the majority of his season?
00:27 I think long term it'll be a centre midfield, as simple as that, and probably like a box to box midfield,
00:32 you know, that offers stuff both defensively and going forward as well.
00:35 It's a difficult one though, that, and I was thinking before we came on there, actually,
00:39 like, you know, where should you play Archie Gray at the moment in terms of positions?
00:43 Because you basically now really got three choices, really.
00:46 You can either play him at right back where obviously, you know, he isn't a natural right back,
00:50 but that's more or less where he's sort of like made his breakthrough this season,
00:53 in centre midfield as part of the sort of like, you know, double pivot, if you like.
00:57 Probably, he'd probably be the slightly more advanced one of those.
00:59 Or now, as we're seeing, like, as this kind of like number 10 or slightly more advanced midfielder
01:03 in a three-man midfield. Or I suppose you could even say, if they revert back to, you know,
01:08 what they've been going to all season in terms of like, you know, two and then a front four,
01:11 like having him as one of the number 10s behind the striker in the normal sort of system they've been playing.
01:17 And they're all live options. It's difficult to know at the moment.
01:20 I mean, I half wonder at the moment if he's best off at right back.
01:23 But the problem is, if you're going to keep him at right back, obviously that negates Sam Byrom,
01:26 unless you're going to play Sam Byrom at left back.
01:28 And Byrom was definitely one of the better players in the first leg.
01:32 One outstanding tackle to say what might have been a goal.
01:35 But then if you're going to switch him to left back, then that knocks Firpo out the side.
01:38 And again, Firpo, I know, obviously, didn't have a good last game of the regular season.
01:41 But again, he's definitely been getting better, you know, definitely been improving and offering assists and stuff.
01:46 So it's a real sort of like Rubik's Cube really in terms of like where you put everyone at the moment.
01:50 But I mean, the other thing with Archie is, is he's still got to remember his age.
01:53 You know, it's crazy to think he's only 18 and a mega start at the weekend that even that appearance was his 50th appearance for the club,
02:01 which made him the youngest player in the club's history to make 50.
02:03 You know, I mean, it's absolutely outstanding achievement is that.
02:06 And it's incredible really to think that at the start of the season, you know,
02:10 if we were talking pre-season and doing it, he hadn't even stepped out for the first team.
02:14 He hadn't even come off the bench in a League Cup game or anything like that.
02:16 So it's just been an amazing breakthrough year for him.
02:19 It's obviously, you know, the stakes are incredibly high now, obviously, going for promotion and stuff.
02:23 And that's an awful lot on the young lad's shoulders, you know, which is why I sort of wonder if he'd be maybe better off at right back rather than sort of in the firing line as such.
02:30 But he certainly helped do a job in that first leg by helping, you know, Shaw leads up and stuff.
02:35 And obviously, like, you know, making a bit harder to break down.
02:37 Obviously, you'd have liked to have seen a bit more from an attacking sort of sphere.
02:41 But I think that will come in time.
02:43 As I say, I think it was earlier on in the season when I saw him a couple of times, when he played at number 10, I think it was one of the League Cup games.
02:49 And straight away, like, he looked like someone who could really offer something that.
02:53 And I just think he's the sort of player, I mean, it's obvious really when someone's so young, he's the sort of player that's going to, like, improve massively over the next couple of years, I think.
03:00 And I would imagine that even over the summer, you know, from where we are now over the summer until the start of next season, he'll probably come back a much, much, much improved player.
03:09 He's, you know, he's growing all the time and he'll be learning all the time.
03:13 And yeah, you could definitely, definitely see him ending up being a decent attacking midfielder.
03:17 But I think all the way through, the feeling has been that he'll be a box to box one, something like that.
03:21 So, yeah, like, you know, obviously, you know, he hasn't sort of like made the headlines as such lately in terms of his performances, because obviously, like, in terms of when he first burst on the scene, people couldn't quite believe how good this kid was at 17 years of age.
03:33 And it's been a lot steadier, like, since.
03:35 But, you know, he did set the bar very, very high of his early performances.
03:38 So, yeah, you've hit the nail on the head, though.
03:39 The bottom line is, is whatever you want to say about him in terms of, well, should he play right back on midfield or as a 10?
03:44 He's obviously got it within his compass to do all of those.
03:47 And, you know, having a player who's so versatile as that is extremely, extremely useful, obviously, because, you know, even if they're not starting, then on a bench, you can bring them on and put them in any of those positions.
03:56 But, you know, I mean, it's not even a definite that he starts at the moment.
03:59 It's, as I say, there's lots of different options.
04:02 But he's a wonderful player to have, obviously.
04:04 And obviously, you just hope that, you know, his long, long, long term future is with Leeds and that he's in the Premier League.
04:09 There's no doubt about it that Leeds United run stick through his veins, as that's very, very clear to see.
04:14 And obviously, everybody wants this club to get promoted and nobody will want it more than Archie Gray.
04:19 Very much so, yes. He is clearly a mercurial talent.
04:23 It's just sort of finding exactly where he fits into the team going forward.
04:26 But, obviously, age is on his side.
04:28 So plenty of time to work that out.
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