Archie Gray has made that right-back spot his own at Leeds United this season.
In his breakthrough year in the first team, Gray has seen off competition from a number of more senior players, despite it not being his strongest position.
Earlier on in the campaign Gray took the mantle from Luke Ayling, who has since gone onto leave Elland Road, before then preventing Djed Spence from getting a run in his best position after returning from injury.
Connor Roberts was then signed in January but has had the same issues as the other two, and has started just one league game since his deadline day arrival from Burnley.
Right-back is a position Gray had played very occasionally in the youth setup at Leeds and England, and so he has effectively been learning on the job in his first season in senior football.
There have been some difficult outings here and there, but his improvement in the role has been clear for all to see, even if he was a little nervy about playing there to begin with.
Gray shares what Rutter did when he first found out he was playing right-back for Leeds
On the latest episode of the BBC’s ‘My Mate’s a Footballer Podcast‘, Gray was speaking alongside Patrick Bamford with Joe Wilkinson about his season so far.
Gray was asked about how the transition to full-back first came about, as during the first two months of the season, he was very much in Leeds’ first choice midfield.
After a conversation with Daniel Farke, Gray says he went into the meeting room and assumed he wasn’t playing after looking at the midfield, until Georginio Rutter made sure he was aware.
“So basically the boss asked me if I had ever played at right-back, I can’t remember when it was but he asked me before I did it and I was like yeah one game, at like U15s or U16s.
“At the weekend I went and sat in the meeting room and thought I wasn’t playing, because I looked in midfield. And then Rutter just tapped me and started laughing and then I looked at the sheet again and was playing right-back. I was like, ‘oh my God.'”
Gray has been excellent at right-back, but midfield will be his position at Leeds
It has been brilliant to see how Gray has grown into the role of right-back, but there is no doubt that long-term, his best position will be in central midfield.
Gray has admitted himself that a box-to-box midfielder is what he sees himself as, while great uncle Eddie has also been banging that same drum in recent weeks.
Prior to Gray winning man-of-the-match in the FA Cup defeat at Chelsea last month from midfield, Eddie was on talkSPORT saying how much better he will be when he returns to his proper position. And he was right.
He said: “Archie is doing well! He will do better when he moves away from right-back. He is playing there basically but he’s a midfield player, you see when he popped up and scored the goal the other night, he has that in his locker.
“He’s able to take the ball and go by people. He will end up playing in the middle of the park but he has done well at right-back.”
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