Leed United are still occupying the direct promotion spot, but the team has been on a downward spiral for the past month as the club has now lost five of its last seven games. One can only imagine how many points they could have been clear by now if not for their drop in form as they are still level on points with league leaders Norwich City.
Their dip in form has coincided with a lot of injuries, and the departure of Samuel Saiz has not helped their cause. Marcelo Bielsa has used Pablo Hernandez to fill in his boots, and the Spaniard has done more than a decent job during his time on the pitch. In the past few games, Bielsa had to push Hernandez to the wide areas as Ezgjan Alioski had to shift to fill in the fullback role. The attacking midfield position is now being occupied by Tyler Roberts who is a striker or winger by trade.
It just seems like Bielsa is plugging the holes of the team by using duct tapes instead of finding a permanent solution to the problem. One player who was expected to come good by this time of the season was Chelsea loanee Izzy Brown. The 22-year-old is an out and out attacking midfielder, and when the rumours of Samuel Saiz’s departure started circulating last year, everyone thought that Brown would be ready by January to play in the Championship.
The former England u-21 international had suffered an ACL injury and hasn’t played a game of competitive football in over a year now (Not counting the u-23 appearances). Signing him last summer was always a gamble as the playmaker was still some months away from recovery and had to go through the rehabilitation process.
The midfielder made a comeback and started playing football for the reserve side but he was again brought down by a hamstring injury. We aren’t sure when Brown would be fit enough to be included in the squad.
Bielsa recently gave an indication and said (Yorkshire Evening Post), ”Izzy hasn’t played for one year. He is fit. He has trained. The sport aspect is different from the fitness aspect. You need to play six or eight games to recover your sport fitness. After playing six or eight games, usually, the player recovers his skills. That’s what we hope.”
The club is in desperate need of an attacking midfielder, but they can’t rush him back given the injury troubles the player has gone through in the recent past.
A lot was expected of this talented signing who had previously helped Huddersfield in their promotion run. However, it seems like a huge gamble to bring him in during a major injury as it will not pay off even if the midfielder goes on to play the final few games of the season.
*Disclaimer: Obviously, we can fall flat on our face with this assessment if Brown goes on to score the winning goal which helps Leeds earn a promotion back to the Premier League.
