The Expert: Is Moses proving to be Chelsea's perfect wing-back?

Football has become a game predicated on transfers. Whatever the problem, the solution is almost always to sign a player or two. Struggling managers always just need another window or two to turn things around. Buying and selling players, the eternal swirl of trade, is such a dominant mode of thought, has so coloured the discourse, that the notion that a manager might actually look to improve a player, something that used to be an absolute basic of the job, has come to seem strangely old-fashioned.  

But every now and again a player pops up who has been largely forgotten about who, it turns out, is just the answer to a club’s problem. It happened the season before last when Arsene Wenger suddenly rediscovered Francis Coquelin and it’s happening this season with Victor Moses. 

For a long time, Moses has seemed like a classic example of the waste of stockpiling. He impressed at Crystal Palace and then, aged 20, moved to Wigan. His development continued and, at 22, he joined Chelsea. But they couldn’t find a place for him so he was loaned out, to Liverpool, Stoke and then West Ham. He never did badly, but the sense was that at none of those clubs was he entirely trusted: he never started more than half the league games in any season. Perhaps that’s just the way of things with loan players: you’re always just a stop-gap. 

But this season he wasn’t loaned out. Antonio Conte, presumably, saw something in him from the start. At 25, Moses must have been considering a move away from Stamford Bridge. He played five games from the bench, always operating on the wing, as he has throughout his career. And then, when Conte decided to switch to a back three, he was deployed at wing-back against Hull. Chelsea have won all four games since and haven’t conceded a goal. Moses has been excellent. 

At first, the thought was that he was just filling in, that Conte would in time look to bring in a more experienced wing-back. Already, though, it’s beginning to seem like this may be his position, that all along Moses was just waiting for somebody to come along and give him the freedom to work up and down the flank. “The more games you play,” Moses said after Sunday’s win at Southampton, “the more experience you get in that position and I’m really relishing and enjoying it at the moment.” 

In those four games playing at right wing-back, Moses has scored one and registered an assist, but it’s his all-round contribution that has been remarkable. His pass accuracy has been variable - down to 63% against Southampton having been well over 80% in the other three games - but perhaps more significant, at last in the short-term, is that he’s averaging 1.3 key passes and three dribbles per game: he makes things happen. He’s also put in 19 crosses in those four games, although eight of them came in the first of them, against Hull. 

But he’s also been putting in the defensive work: an average of 2.3 tackles and 2.3 interceptions per game. It’s true, perhaps, that he hasn’t faced a particularly stiff defensive challenge as yet and his long-term value as a right-wing back will be more tested when he faces the likes of Philippe Coutinho, Nolito or Alexis Sanchez, but for now he’s doing a highly valuable job. 

Perhaps it’s largely relief at being allowed to play for his parent club but even if he lacks the positional sense that comes with years of experience, his work-rate combined with his ability on the ball is proving enough. As such, he’s an example, of how necessity can force the most productive inventions and a reminder to all clubs and all managers that the solution to the next problem may not lie in another signing but in the inventive use of what you already have.

Is Moses the ideal wing-back for Chelsea in Antonio Conte's 3-4-3 formation? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below