Why Chelsea's Tino Anjorin needs Huddersfield Town loan move to work out

Cameron Smith

• Updated: 31 Jan 2022 20:35 GMT
• 6 min read

Faustino Anjorin isn't a name that many non-Chelsea fans would've heard of, but amongst the Blues faithful and coaching staff, he's rated extremely highly.

An attacking midfielder by trade, Anjorin can play as a No.8, a No.10 or out wide, and it was a berth on the left-hand side where he was deployed on his Champions League debut.

That's right, last season, Anjorin started Chelsea's Champions League group stage game against Krasnodar, despite the plethora of attacking options available to Frank Lampard.

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It demonstrated the faith that Lampard had in the youngster, and by all accounts, Anjorin impressed. However, after that game, he made just two substitute appearances for the rest of the campaign, both of which came in the FA Cup.

Now, a mid-season managerial change didn't help, and neither did Chelsea's battle for the top four, and Champions League victory. Thomas Tuchel couldn't risk giving Anjorin vital minutes, even though he had impressed in training.

In fact, he said as much after Chelsea's pre-season friendly against Tottenham. When asked about Anjorin, Tuchel replied: "I'm a bit sad because he trained so, so well for us in the last half year, but the race for top four was on and there were so many decisive matches every three days, so it wasn't the time to try stuff with young players. But he always showed his quality in training.

"When the season ended we agreed he stays for pre-season and he'd get the minutes he deserves. Unfortunately, before the first friendly, Tino was the guy to test positive for Covid and really suffered for ten, 12 days. You could see today that it was the first time he was back on the pitch and it was a lot for him to start with 30 minutes.

"So he was unlucky with the situation, he had no responsibility for it. So, honestly, I can't really judge him and what I saw today in five, ten minutes was very promising again. He is strong, confident, creative, assists and scores a lot of goals in training for us."

Plagued by bad fortune, Anjorin found his path to the first-team blocked further by the arrival of Romelu Lukaku, who's presence caused both Timo Werner and Kai Havertz to play slightly deeper, which left no room for Anjorin.

For that reason, Anjorin headed out on loan to Lokomotiv Moscow, with Ralf Rangnick's influence a key part of that decision. Anjorin scored in the Europa League for the Russian side, but a lack of consistent game time, injuries, and Rangnick's departure meant the loan deal was cut short.

He returned to Chelsea in January, and on deadline day it was confirmed he would be joining Huddersfield Town on loan for the rest of the season. He will partner up with fellow Cobham loanee Levi Colwill, who has been mightily impressive in the Championship this year, at the club, in their bid to reach the play-offs.

But, why is a move to Huddersfield so crucial to Anjorin?

Why does he need a loan move so desperately?

Not only did his temporary move to Russia not work out, but Anjorin's current competition for a role in Tuchel's 3-4-2-1 is immense. Mason Mount, Hakim Ziyech, Christian Pulisic, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Werner, Havertz and Lukaku are all ahead of him in the pecking order, so it's hard to see where he gets a single minute, even in cup competitions.

Furthermore, Anjorin turned 20 in November, and since his Premier League debut against Everton in 2020, he's not played another minute in the competition.

By the same age as Anjorin was at the start of the season, Mount had contributed to 23 Eredivisie goals in his single season at Vitesse, Jadon Sancho had just hit double figures for goals and assists in the Bundesliga, while Bukayo Saka had played several times for England at the European Championship.

In essence, Anjorin is behind in his development. Of course, training with the Chelsea first-team will have helped a lot, but not as much as actual regular game time in senior football.

Therefore, he needs regular minutes, or he could find himself stuck at Chelsea, unable to break into the first-team.

This move to Huddersfield simply needs to go well. If it doesn't, then there'll be doubts about whether he has a future at Chelsea.

Follow in Billy Gilmour's footsteps

Similar to Anjorin, Gilmour hasn't played too much for the Chelsea first-team, and the decision was made for him to move to Norwich on loan for the 2021/22 season.

He's already impressed this season, mostly under new manager Dean Smith, and although Anjorin couldn't secure a Premier League loan move like Gilmour, he's joined a decent Championship side and will be able to display his talent every week.

That's what he needs right now, and Chelsea are well aware of that.

How good is Anjorin?

The main thing to know about Anjorin is his physical strength. Playing for Chelsea's U23 side as a teenager, he bullied opponents, and his cameo against Tottenham in pre-season showed his upper body strength at such a young age.

He barged several Spurs players away from him before nearly scoring, and he's more than capable of the surviving the rough and tough of first-team English football.

With 16 goals and 12 assists in just 35 games for Chelsea's U23 side, Anjorin is far too good for academy football, hence why he has been training with the first team for over 18 months. Not only is his output excellent, but Anjorin adds so much outside of that, with his dribbling ability particularly noteworthy.

As mentioned, his strength makes it extremely hard to knock him off the ball, and he excels when carrying the ball from deep.

He has the physical build to compete in the Championship, as well as the technical ability to thrive in the second tier of English football. This could well be a brilliant loan move, and one that kickstarts Anjorin's career.