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Archie Gray

watched a lot of highlights reels of his and its easy to tell he is very attack minded and already has that vision and range of passing. for example :
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and he was a very very young then
Most of those clips were play from RB, not I put much weight in what's on a YouTube compilation, with some good passes, different to an attacking midfielder.

Playing at CB, as he did for most of last season, won't have stunted his growth. It will have helped him improve the defensive side of his game, get a lot more time than he would've otherwise and get used to the pace of the premier league. He is way ahead of where it would've been planned for when he joined.
 
Doesn't look at all like a player who's had his development stunted. Showed great quality on the ball last season, got plenty of minutes and gained a lot of experience at a higher level.

Him being better in midfield is a different question, and not surprising to see him do well.
its not a different question. if grey had been in the midfield last season, he would have had much more relevant experience and imo would be even better in the midfield this season. he arrived being ahead of bergvall in breaking into the first eleven so i feel for him.
 
its not a different question. if grey had been in the midfield last season, he would have had much more relevant experience and imo would be even better in the midfield this season. he arrived being ahead of bergvall in breaking into the first eleven so i feel for him.
The way we played last season (at times at least), loads of risk on the ball deep, full backs inverting and advancing into midfield positions. I think that was good and relevant experience for him.

What he did on the ball in tight areas against Doncaster is the same as he did in tight areas as a full back (and CB) last season. Finding solutions, getting out of trouble, using his skill and awareness and passing ability.
 
thats why i said whole of last season that ange was stunting grey's growth in defence. prior to that he was an very attack minded midfielder already with that range of passing (albeit at a lower league). it doesn't matter now that he is getting game time, but I had no doubt he would be more effective further ahead.

In fact i think TF has a slight conundrum with bergvall, sarr and grey with huge overlaps in their best positions. not a bad thing of course. what we really need is a young and younger version of paulinha to complete the midfield - like caicedo

I can understand the point you are making for sure, i do not think Grays growth has/was stunted by playing there though. He has learnt what is needed to play there and that can only help him long term imo, but i do agree i think he will be better suited to M/F long term.
 
I still come back to the amount of games he's put his body through since breakthrough. I think he started 49 games for Leeds as a 17 year old. then last season Ange had no choice to play him in consecutive games for months on end. I bet his accumulative total of mins added up to between 30 and 40 games.

We just need to manage his body as his muscles develop at this critical age. We don't want another Sess on our hands.
 
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