Samuel Saiz departure poses on-field questions for Leeds United as Izzy Brown wait goes on

Marcelo Bielsa and Victor Orta looked on as Brown left the field on Monday and officials at Leeds United would not be human if the timing of his withdrawal failed to worry them.

The midfielder complained of nothing worse than a tight hamstring and Leeds were confident that scans on his leg would provide the all-clear but a niggle during his fourth development-squad appearance underlined the gamble the club are taking by expecting Brown to negate Saiz’s departure. Bielsa described the possibility of replacing Saiz in next month’s transfer window as “hypothetical” on Saturday but the situation is far less speculative now the Spaniard has gone.

Saiz’s move to Getafe on loan for the rest of the season was finalised on Monday afternoon, while Brown was featuring in a 2-0 defeat to Barnsley’s Under-23s at Thorp Arch, and Leeds deduced last week that the 27-year-old had played his last game for the club.

He was given permission to miss Saturday’s Championship win at Bolton Wanderers to travel to Spain for a medical and the deal with Getafe has allowed Saiz to stay in Madrid, and potentially train with the La Liga club, while he waits for his loan to start on January 1.

His partner is due to give birth shortly and the leave of absence is compassionate to a point but Leeds were quickly made to realise how tired Saiz was with life in England and saw no merit in forcing him to stay.

Bielsa has not spoken at length of the impact of losing Saiz, saying only that he was “an important player and one of the players who has played most under me”, but in spite of the midfielder’s dwindling enthusiasm and bit-part role in the past two months, he was a high-calibre option at number 10; the most skilled player in the squad, to quote United’s head coach.

Brown has talent in that respect too but a week ago Bielsa made the point that the Chelsea loanee had ground to make up after almost 12 months spent recovering from ACL surgery.

Bielsa had no concerns about Brown’s health or the condition of his knee but warned that a year without any first-team football would impact on his body’s ability to cope with twists, turns and bursts of pace, the attributes a number 10 relies on.

Brown was half-an-hour into Monday’s Under-23s fixture when he left the field clutching a hamstring, demonstrating why Bielsa was holding him back from first-team fixtures.

In the circumstances, Bielsa’s choice of players in the Saiz role are limited. He started Mateusz Klich in that position during Saturday’s victory at Bolton, an area where Klich flourished earlier in the season, but moved Pablo Hernandez there to good effect in the second half. Hernandez’s pass laid on the chance which Patrick Bamford tucked away but Bielsa prefers the 33-year-old to play wide on the right, sucking opposition players in and creating gaps elsewhere on the pitch.

Another alternative is Lewis Baker but rare opportunities for Baker in the past month have ended on both occasions with Bielsa substituting him early. He was replaced at half-time against Reading and again at Bolton having failed to influence either match, and it fell to Hernandez to run the midfield from the 46th minute onwards on Saturday.

Baker came to Leeds on loan from Chelsea in the summer in the hope that Bielsa would see more in him than Tony Pulis did at Middlesbrough last season but his impact has been no more lasting.

Bielsa was sympathetic about Baker’s input at the end of the clash with Bolton. “He played better than his last game (against Reading),” Bielsa said.

“He started well but then I saw the difficulty. Baker and Mateusz Klich were going to the zone in behind (Bolton’s) number four and number 21 but because we didn’t have any inside passes they couldn’t get the ball.

“I thought it was about the profile of the player so I put Mateusz Klich in place of Lewis Baker and Pablo as a number 10 instead of Klich. But apart from the fact that Pablo provided a solution to the game, we still had the same problem. We had Pablo and Klich free and we couldn’t give the ball to them.”

A number 10, or enganche as Bielsa and his fellow Argentinians call it, is fundamental to his style of play. The best of Saiz’s form this season, in the opening month, coincided with the best of Leeds’ performances, inspired by his knack of beating a man and leading counter-attacks from deep.

That talent left him as the year wore on and Bielsa admitted after this month’s win over Queens Park Rangers – Saiz’s last start for the club – that he was playing within himself.

It became apparent last week that the lack of confidence Bielsa talked about was not the half of it. Saiz was unsettled, unhappy and keen to depart; so keen that Leeds decided almost immediately that it was pointless trying to talk him round. Getafe have their first January signing in place and Saiz’s exit leaves Leeds to ponder their next move. Can Bielsa, as he does so cleverly, manage his existing squad in a way which means Saiz is not missed?

Or will United be compelled to step into the transfer market, to avoid putting excessive pressure on Brown and ensure that the strongest of league positions is not allowed to erode?

Getafe published a picture of Saiz on their Twitter account on Monday evening, a doctored image of him in their home shirt. He is their player now and Leeds do not expect him to come back when his loan finishes at the end of this season. A second child is on the way and Madrid was where Saiz wanted to be.

“Thanks Leeds for this wonderful year and a half,” his partner, Elena Milla, posted on Instagram.

“Living away from your family and city is always very hard but we have felt very loved there.”