Chelsea testing Leeds United’s promise as a loan club with Isaiah Brown

Chelsea are dispatching Isaiah Brown to a loan at Leeds United, bringing their loanee total there to three. Hopefully Brown will gain more from his time with Marcelo Bielsa than his fellow Blues.

Leeds United look like a promising loan destination on paper for Chelsea. They are in the midst of a tactical and cultural overhaul in Marcelo Bielsa’s first season. Bielsa favours young, malleable players, and their trajectory this season points to his team attacking their route to promotion. This opens the possibility for Leeds to be a Premier League loan destination next year, and for Bielsa to consider buying some of his loanees to assist with progression in the top tier.

But many of these factors are double-edged. Leeds hired Bielsa to fast-track the club into the Premier League, where the goal will be more than survival. He has to look beyond this season because that is where the real pay-off and purpose lay.

Bielsa has a bit of an advantage, then, in having a year in the Championship to instill his methods before having to face the Premier League grinder. He will want to go into the top-tier with his team playing “Bielsa-ball” (we can’t let this become a thing) as proficiently as possible. He therefore may not want to invest much game time in players who will not be with the club next season. Every minute that a loanee is on the pitch is a minute that will not carry over into the Premier League next season.

In this sense, being a Chelsea loanee at Leeds United is very similar to staying at Stamford Bridge on the far fringes of the squad. Both clubs have new managers implementing difficult and well-defined systems that are much different from any the clubs have had. Maurizio Sarri and Marcelo Bielsa must get 11 players executing their system before they can spend too much time integrating the full squad.

Any benefit the young players receive, then, comes in training, not in games. The potential for game time at Leeds United shrunk even more this week, as Leeds exited the Carabao Cup to Preston North End. Jamal Blackman and Lewis Baker played 90 minutes in both Carabao Cup games. But in Championship play, Blackman has been on the bench behind 21-year old Bailey Peacock-Farrell in the Championship and Baker has only 78 minutes in five substitute appearances.

Isaiah Brown is more of an attacking player than Baker, which gives him an advantage in a Marcelo Bielsa side. Brown had four goals in the second half of Huddersfield’s 2016/17 season, helping them win promotion. He had another three goals and five assists in the first half of that season at Rotherham. Despite leaving in January for a team moving in the right direction, Brown’s eight goals created were the third-most for Rotherham, who ended up finishing last.

Chelsea must ensure their loanees at Leeds are benefitting from the experience. Isaiah Brown is coming back from an ACL injury, and Lewis Baker’s career trajectory is stalled on a good day and going the wrong way on others. Both players need to regain course and speed.

Chelsea must be vigilant and willing to recall one of them in January if things are not working out as planned.

On paper, Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United is a perfect loan club. In reality, it may not play out that way. Leeds may just be too much like Chelsea.