Leeds United's Archie Gray makes Liam Millar admission and declares England or Scotland intent

Seventeen-year-old Gray is enjoying a superb breakthrough season in the Leeds first team but the natural midfielder has often been deployed as a right back for Daniel Farke’s Whites. Gray then moved back into his natural central midfield position for this month’s FA Cup third round clash at Peterborough United which Gray said he could then approach differently given a better understanding of the game via his outings at right back.

The teen has faced a variety of tests in the position and was given a particularly hard time in Boxing Day’s clash at Preston North End by a winger he is likely to face again in Sunday’s Elland Road rematch. Liam Millar proved a constant menace in last month’s clash at Deepdale in which he set up his side’s opening goal before later scoring an 89th-minute winner.

Sunderland’s former Whites star Jack Clarke is another winger to have provided a particularly taxing assignment in last month’s 1-0 defeat at the Stadium of Light. Gray, though, says he is relishing the opportunity to continually develop his game at right back, admitting that different steps are required in an attempt to deal with talented stars such as Clarke and Millar.

"You learn the most from difficult games and obviously you’ve got brilliant wingers in this league,” said Gray in an interview with BBC Radio Leeds. “Obviously sometimes they’re going to get the better of you in situations and you just learn the most from them. You realise ‘I should have done that.’ You watch it back and you realise ‘I shouldn’t have done that and I should have done that.’ But it’s just taking every player as a different player because not every player is the same.

"With Jack Clarke and Liam Millar, you have to do different things. Even with our wingers, with Cree [Summerville] and Dan [James], you would have to do different things to defend them. It’s just about realising who you’re playing against and realising strengths, realising what you need to do for his weaknesses and where to force them and just stuff like that."

Gray only made his Leeds debut in August’s Championship opener against visiting Cardiff City in which he started alongside Ethan Ampadu in centre-midfield. Just five months later, Gray has already bagged over 2000 minutes of Championship football – in two different positions.

"You just gain loads of experience from playing different positions and it helps you understand the game a bit more,” said Gray, asked about playing at right-back. "Me playing as a right back, you see the game differently as a midfielder and when I stepped back in midfield in the FA Cup, you see the game differently because I played right back.

"But it's just about different experiences from the games and stuff. Coming up against different wingers, you know you come up against some wingers that are lightning fast, you have got some ones that are like really technically good and try and they will try and take you on one on one and some ones that you just can’t let them have a shot or come in on their strong foot or you have got to show them to the line.

"So it's just about learning against the player that you are playing against and just getting experience. But I think as the games have gone on I have gained loads of experience but there's still loads more I can learn."

Gray has also played as a right back for England’s youth teams as part of a rise up the ladder from under-15s to under-20s level. His family’s Scotland history needs no introduction but it’s very much Three Lions on the shirt for young Archie. Asked if it would be England and not Scotland for him, Gray laughed: "Yeah!. I think so. My dream is to play for England one day but we will see how it goes."