Ex Leeds United hero on striker question marks, wantaway Under 23s and Aston Villa clash

Steven Gerrard has gone in there and done extremely well, given them an attitude and a steeliness and attracted a couple of very good signings.

Going to the likes of Villa for Phillipe Coutinho and Lucas Digne is all about the manager, so they probably have what we have here at Leeds with Bielsa. Both men can attract players to their clubs because of who they are and what they can do for their careers.

He’s putting together a squad for how he wants to play football.

It’s a big game simply because, after the opportunity we had against Newcastle United slipped through our fingers, suddenly a comfort blanket that could have been quite large is not quite so. We’ve got to get back to it.

The weeks that have passed have allowed some of our injuries to clear up a little bit more but these games on Wednesday and Saturday are really important; we have to be back on it.

As fans of Leeds, we were all hoping that Patrick Bamford would be closer to a return, but he’s yet to start jogging. As a player, I’m sure he’s hugely frustrated because he had such a great first season in the Premier League, he’d started to play for England and, with the World Cup in the back of his mind, he would have been looking to bang in 15 or 20 goals to maybe be in with a chance.

But it’s all gone wrong for him, physically, which is a real shame.

He finally came back against Brentford, scored and then, of course, picked up another injury. And now he’s recovering from a third.

Patience is key but, after having had that many injuries, he’ll be feeling the frustration at not being able to help out the boys.

Clearly Marcelo Bielsa favours Daniel James up top and, although I think he does a fantastic job, his work-rate is superb and there are so many great things about his game, that No 9 role is about being in the right positions at the right time in and around the box and sticking it in the back of the net.

That isn’t James’ natural game, which is where the question marks come up.

I look back at how Joe Gelhardt played against Tottenham and thought ‘okay he needs more minutes’ but he got fewer, had a little injury and what have you, so I’d like to see him involved a little bit more.

Experience means a lot as well but I think we’ve seen enough to suggest an out-and-out No 9 is what we’re missing.

For quite a few weeks now, a win is going to calm the nerves and a defeat is going to do the opposite. A bit of form and a run will keep other clubs looking over their shoulders. I look upwards and think where could we be after a couple of wins? There is a lot to play for and the lads will be itching to get out there.

We saw at West Ham what they can do, but they’ll be so disappointed with what happened against Newcastle. They’ll want to get out there and show everyone the real Leeds United.

Away from the first team, so to speak, it was great to see so much support for the Under-23s on Monday night and even better to see Crysencio Summerville playing so well. I really do think that for these young kids coming through, playing for the 23s and getting their first-team chances here and there is all about exposure at the right time.

Getting into a Premier League XI as a youngster today it’s extremely difficult. In my day it was easier. Nowadays the loan system is used by a lot of big clubs to let their youngsters go out and get experience - we were after one ourselves in Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher - and you can see it work. Our boys will be no different in wanting to experience a higher level of football than the 23s, that’s absolutely normal. They’re not saying they want to leave Leeds for good, they’re saying they want to step up, improve and then come back and get in the first team. You can see why they’d ask for that.

Training with the first-team squad will bring you on so far, absolutely, but the pressure of playing and being able to handle those steps up is what it’s all about. If you don’t have enough of those situations it will take a bit longer. The likes of Archie Gray, training with the first team and sitting on the bench at 15 is an incredible education but, if you’re 18, 19 you want to start being in the heat, playing a bit more.

If you can’t get that opportunity it’s difficult. Even if you can, we’re looking to try and stay in the Premier League so the young lads will be straight in at the deep end and that’s not a straight-forward transition.

From a Leeds United point of view, however, we haven’t got that many players right now so one or two will certainly get chances in the first team. For me, Summerville would have been one of them - if James is playing down the middle and Jack Harrison and Raphinha are the wingers, then Summerville is the next wide man.

He’s here, he stayed and let’s see if he’s involved going forward; that will soon tell us if it was the right decision to ask to leave, or not.