Tino Anjorin: How do Huddersfield Town get 90 minutes out of Chelsea talent

When the Baggies asked themselves the inevitable question of how they did not beat Huddersfield Town, Andy Davies’ decision not to award a very obvious penalty as Will Boyle kicked through the back of former Terrier Karlan Grant was top of the list, and their own failure to turn possession into goals as they had against Hull City seven days earlier was another reason. But a huge factor in their dropping two points was on-loan Chelsea playmaker Anjorin, whose exquisite goals in the first half-hour set the pace for the game.

If only he had the ability to last it.

Anjorin was on a hat-trick when he came off after 59 minutes, the first player substituted despite no obvious signs of injury.

The 20-year-old has been at Huddersfield since January, and is still to play a full game for them. Carlos Corberan never started him and although he has kicked off three matches this season, he has not made it past 76 minutes.

As he showed against West Brom, it is not down to a lack of ability.

“He played very, very well – he’s a good player,” said visiting manager Steve Bruce, who has played with and managed a few.

In shape and size, Anjorin is much closer to Bruce’s old Hull player Tom Huddlestone than Juninho or Gianfranco Zola but Huddlestone’s job was controlling the play from deep; wherever it looks like he is supposed to be playing, Anjorin tends to be a No 10 like the other two.

In theory, it looked like his job on Saturday was on the right of the forward line in a 3-4-3, but when Huddersfield had the ball they shuffled Ollie Turton out to right-back and push wing-back Kaine Kesler-Hayden into that position, allowing Anjorin to drop between midfield and attack in the inside-right channel.

Both goals showed why.

The first was scored after 11 minutes when a corner on the left was played short to him and he curled a wonderful shot from outside the area but it had started when, shortly after booting a ball out for a goal-kick from the halfway line, Turton threaded a much more sophisticated pass into Anjorin in the channel. He got to the byline and whipped over a cross put behind for a corner on the right, then the one on the left he gloriously finished.

“I’d like to say that’s coached day in, day out, but it was individual quality,” smiled coach Danny Schofield, as well he might.

The second saw Anjorin run from inside- to outside-right chasing a ball helped on by Danny Ward which he was much hungrier for than Dara O’Shea. The finish clipped between David Button and his near post after cutting inside was as good as the first.

This is a special talent and now Lewis O’Brien and Harry Toffolo are Nottingham Forest players, a club on Huddersfield’s budget do not have many more. To have him playing cameos when he should be top of the bill is a criminal waste of limited resources.

“I think you get this with such explosive athletes,” said former striker Schofield. “They’ve got different muscles – certainly different muscles to me. He’s very powerful and the energy that’s expended is used up really quickly.

“The only way these things are really improved is being exposed to Championship-demanding games and being pushed to the limit.

“Tino’s still very young and has still got a lot of developing physically to do. He’ll get there.

“He has game-winning qualities which are very hard to come by in football. When he can sustain 90-plus minutes he can be a real talent.”

It can be done. Anjorin could never be a Juninho or Zola but Yaya Toure was fairly handy.

If their star player has a physical issue to address, Huddersfield as a whole seem to have a psychological hang-up to get over.

The only time they were the better team – and they were far better – was at 0-0. Even as they made last season’s play-off final they were too often not assertive enough when ahead. The early-season solution – to hardly ever go in front – is no solution at all.

“We were always trying to manage the game and thinking about how could we not concede rather than score another goal,” lamented Schofield – who did not have Jonathan Hogg, victim of a training-ground “niggle”, or the suspended Tom Lees to try and drag their team-mates higher up the pitch.

Day-dreaming by Jon Russell – another big unit with Chelsea academy-honed skills – allowed Jed Wallace to run off the back of him and convert Grady Diangana’s pull-back before half-time and when Wallace volleyed in a knock-down from John Swift after 57 minutes, the second half became all about whether the team camped in Huddersfield territory for the first 40 minutes could win the game.

They ought to have had the chance after 86 minutes but apparently the only people who did not see the freshly-introduced Boyle’s foul were dressed in black.

“I haven’t seen it back,” said Schofield afterwards, rolling his eyes and raising his eyebrows for comic effect to show that, as his former Huddersfield manager Bruce would point out minutes later, one look was all it needed.

Josh Ruffels did stretch to an excellent long-range effort against the post after winning the ball two minutes later but there was no question that when Anjorin went off, a lot of the Terriers’ bite went with him.

It really was a performance to leave you wanting more.