Leeds United hero weighs in on Javi Gracia selection shock, ‘strange’ tactic and gigantic dates

Looking at one or two games prior to Willy Gnonto dropping to the bench, I can see why Javi Gracia has given him a little rest at what is maybe the right time.

He's only 19, there's a lot of pressure on him and he has done fantastically well but at Everton, where he was always trying to take on Seamus Coleman, they doubled up on him with Alex Iwobi and instead of trying to play the team game he kept doing what he was doing and wanting to take people on all the time. That directness is a strength but it's about knowing when to do it and when not to do it.

Gnonto has shown a fantastic attitude and personality since he arrived so he will understand, as everyone in the squad does, that we're going to need every single player and at times you'll be on the bench. When you get a chance to be on the pitch, then it's down to you to show what you're about. Like I knew he would, he has responded really well and when he's come off the bench he has proved a real threat, posing real danger to defences. He's a great option for Gracia to have and he showed that again at home to Brighton in what was a really tricky game.

You don't want to play into their hands, that's why they play that way. They're trying to drag you in, pull you higher up the pitch and eventually your press is going to commit three, four bodies to try and stop it. Once they get bypassed the space is there. They did it rather well. At times I thought we did well, won the ball back and just didn't use it quite as well as we should.

For fans looking on, we're not used to what Gracia had us doing, we've not seen it, in fact we've seen the exact opposite. We had an extremely high press under Marcelo Bielsa that was non-stop, flying in there to try and get the ball back. Under Jesse Marsch it was a similar story. So this looked strange, it felt strange, no doubt, playing the waiting game. The fans were asking why we weren't flying in. Just keeping our shape was so important, but even still they were good enough to play that long ball out to Kaoru Mitoma - one of those players who doesn't look quick but is and with the ball is even quicker - or into Alexis Mac Allister in good areas and Evan Ferguson, who brought others into play. They're a very good outfit and Javi Gracia had a plan but sometimes you can't always stop it.

A lot of the pressure we came under was a result of Brighton players understanding their roles and their system so well. And when you have to go one v one then you have to defend exceptionally well. It's difficult with a player like Mitoma.

For our own attacking players it was so pleasing to see the ball hit the net twice.

For Patrick Bamford in particular it was excellent. We know that he can score goals but he needs confidence. When he's on song he can bang a few in but it's taken him a little while to get that fitness and sharpness. Being that number nine through the middle, like it or not end product is what he'll be measured on and Saturday's was an excellent goal. He took his chance to shoot, a little deflection and over the keeper the ball went. It was also great to see the move develop because the ball arrived at Bamford from Jack Harrison, with a really quick pass which was very well judged. We haven't always got things right in the final third so it has to be encouraging.

Jack had a mixed bag of just about everything with that own goal, setting up our first and scoring a wonderful equaliser. Players in his position need confidence. It felt like the goals fell to the right men. Hopefully they can kick on from there because we'll need them to repeat the trick again and soon.

After this number of games I don't think you can ever say you're in the wrong position in the table. The table is the bit that doesn't lie. I think then you delve deeper into it, what Javi Gracia is making us is stronger. We're staying in games, we're always still there. I look at the goals against as well, we have a very good goals against record and our goal difference is stronger compared to a lot of our fellow strugglers. It doesn't really matter right now, though, it's all about points and that last column in the table. We have some really important fixtures coming up. Wolves away is huge, then it's Arsenal before gigantic games against Nottingham Forest and Palace.

The more we can develop, the more we can get confidence back and players back, the more chance we've got. Gracia has shown he's flexible in his approach and at some point we are going to have to let it go a little bit more going forward but that's not the case just yet.