Eddie Gray feels Leeds United forced people to take notice of their great start to the season through their dogged performance against Millwall last weekend.
Under Marcelo Bielsa, Leeds are currently flying and are at the top of the Championship table on 18 points, a point ahead of Middlesbrough in second; they welcome Birmingham City to Elland Road on Saturday.
Leeds made a similar start to the campaign last year too, but badly tailed off and finished in the bottom half of the league table. However, many believe the current Whites side will not suffer the same fate this season.
Gray believes Leeds are now finally developing the reputation of being a hard side to beat despite all their flair and good football, and their dogged performance to wrestle a point away at Millwall last weekend forced many to take notice of their performances.
The Leeds legend also highlighted the attitude the players showed after scoring the late equaliser, which is winning them praise from across the country.
The former Leeds midfielder told LUTV: “The team are making a name for themselves as being difficult to beat.
“I think people started taking notice after the Millwall game. When you go a goal down at Millwall, it is usually game over.”
Gray continued: “They dug in, probably never played as well we have played in certain games and what impressed me about that is when we scored the goal in the 90th minute and the players sprinted back from the net to the halfway line, thinking we can win this game.
“It nearly backfired on us as they battered us in the last four or five minutes.
“That’s the mentality of the players and most people in the country now expect us to win the game [against Birmingham].”
Garry Monk has set Birmingham up as a tough team to break down, but Bielsa's Leeds are still tipped to get the job done.
