Portsmouth's Chelsea loanee in line to face Carlisle United

Tino Anjorin, who has played in the Champions League for his parent club, is in the frame to feature for the hosts this afternoon.

And the 21-year-old attacking midfielder will be a familiar face to Carlisle’s boss should he get the nod.

“I worked with Tino with England’s Under-19s so I know all about him,” said Simpson.

“He’s a really talented young lad.

“But he isn’t guaranteed to get in Portsmouth’s team. He hasn’t played in all the games – they’ve got other forward players or 10s, so it's going be a challenge [whoever they play] – but these are the games you want to be involved in.”

Anjorin has made five first-team appearances for Chelsea, including one in the Premier League against Everton and one in the Champions League against FK Krasnodor, both in 2020.

He has also played European football with former loan club Lokomotiv Moscow, featuring in the Europa League in 2021, before further loan spells in the English Championship with Huddersfield Town.

Anjorin was on loan at Huddersfield last season (Image: PA)

He joined Portsmouth on loan late in the summer transfer window and has so far made just five appearances.

But the talented prospect showed his ability with an overhead kick goal against Gillingham (below) in the EFL Trophy.

Anjorin has had to be patient with other players so far preferred in Pompey’s rise to the top of League One.

But it is expected that Anjorin will benefit from time to bed into his surroundings at the south coast club and eventually make his mark.

Home boss John Mousinho, meanwhile, has earmarked set-piece specialist Jack Sparkes as a key asset ahead of Saturday’s clash with the Blues.

The former Exeter City man has set up three goals from dead-ball situations.

And Mousinho told The News: “Since I’ve been here, set-pieces have been crucial for us, you ignore them at your peril.

“It’s one of the reasons why we are successful. Firstly because we gain quite a few of them and secondly the amount of work [coach] Joe Prodomo puts into set-pieces is paramount.

“Yet the delivery is the most important thing. We can put as much emphasis on set-pieces as we like, but there are two things which make good set-pieces – delivery and an aggressive willingness to attack the ball.

“Jack is brilliant, he delivers the ball with a lot of pace and it’s quite flat as well, so it’s really, really difficult to defend.

“It’s like you see with his crosses a lot of the time, he can wrap his foot around the ball and the trajectory he gets is superb.”

Sparkes could keep his place against United despite Connor Ogilvie’s return to fitness for the League One pacesetters.