Leeds United teen Archie Gray reveals dressing room's newest source of advice in Whites position fight

The arrival of Connor Roberts on loan from Burnley has given Daniel Farke real strength in depth at right-back, a position that was weakened by the January exits of Djed Spence and Luke Ayling. Farke sent Spence back to parent club Tottenham Hotspur over a failure to meet all of the manager's standards, and then gave Ayling permission to join Middlesbrough on loan in order to get the minutes he needs to secure a contract elsewhere for next season and beyond.

It took until deadline day, the very final hours of it in fact, but Leeds managed to bolster Farke's options with the capture of Roberts from the Premier League Clarets, supplementing their Welsh national team contingent at the same time. And Saturday's win over Rotherham United, which was comfortably secured by the hour mark, allowed Farke to finally introduce Roberts to the action.

As it happened it was not Gray who had to make way for Roberts, because Farke wanted to give Ilia Gruev a rest after a 120-minute marathon effort in the midweek win over Plymouth. Gray slotted back into his more natural central midfield role and Roberts went to right-back.

According to the teenager, the new man has wasted no time in passing on his wisdom and experience. "He's been great," said Gray after the 3-0 victory. "He's been really helpful for me, giving little tips about positioning and stuff like that because he's an actual right-back, so he's been really helpful for me and obviously great competition because he's a great player."

The right-back area is not the only one where battles are being fought over match involvement. Sam Byram and Junior Firpo are both fit and contesting the left-back slot, while Ethan Ampadu and Joe Rodon are currently keeping Liam Cooper and Charlie Cresswell out of the central defensive positions. Joel Piroe, who scored so many goals in the first half of the season, is struggling to get back into the side with Patrick Bamford and Georginio Rutter performing so well in the 9 and 10 roles respectively. And though Daniel James is due back from a groin injury any week now, his replacement Willy Gnonto has just started to shine.

"It's really good," said Gray. "It's healthy competition in training every day. It just pushes us to train better every day and forces us to play better in a way you know, it's competition and that's what football is at every club. It's just part of football."

Leeds' win over Rotherham made it six on the spin in the Championship and kept the pressure on in-form Southampton, who now sit second behind runaway leaders Leicester City. Ipswich Town faltered again in the day's early kick-off, dropping points in a 2-2 draw with West Bromwich Albion. The promotion race is far from run but Leeds can certainly consider themselves well placed. Gray says the next step, rather than the finish line, is where Leeds' focus lies.

"Well obviously that's the goal and what you dream of, but you know, you just got to focus on game by game, you can't look further ahead at promotion and stuff," he said. "Just got to focus on the next game and the next game after that, game after that, until near the end of the season where you're hitting crunch time and you have to get the results in."