Victor Moses: Super Eagles star had a resurgence under Conte but Sarri brings uncertain future at Chelsea

After two successful years under Conte, Moses faces an uncertain future at Chelsea with Sarri.

After an embarrassing 0-3 loss to Arsenal in a Premier League game in September 2016, Antonio Conte made a tactical switch that not only saved Chelsea’s season and won them the title, but also resuscitated the career of Victor Moses.

After impressing with flashes of brilliance as a forward at Wigan, Moses joined Chelsea in the summer of 2012 and went on to win the Europa League in his average first season at the club.

When Jose Mourinho returned in the summer of 2013, he didn’t fancy the fleet-footed Nigerian and Liverpool took him on loan.

At Liverpool, Moses struggled for game time and the next season he moved to Stoke City where a series of injuries limited him.

 

At West Ham, Moses had his best spell of all the loan moves but injuries derailed him again.

Conte came in to take over Mourinho ruins at Chelsea and among them was Moses whom he chose to keep at the club.

In a bid to play it safe and offer more attacking football, Conte started his stint with Chelsea with a variation of 4-3-3 which had no place for Moses.

Although blessed with pace, Moses was not on the same level as Eden Hazard, lacked the trickery of Willian and didn’t possess enough goal threat like Pedro.

So with Conte’s 4-3-3, Moses struggled for game time and it looked like it would be a long season for him before that Chelsea’s 0-3 loss to Arsenal.

That was Chelsea’s second consecutive loss in the Premier League and with his back against the wall, Conte returned back to his three-man defence which had given him success at Juventus.

After getting battered in the first half, Chelsea became more solid in the second. That second half set the precedent for Conte’s two-season stint at Chelsea.

Among some of his changes were deploying Moses as a wing-back from the right.

 

“He (Conte) didn't say to me, "Do I fancy playing wing back?" He just put me in there, and after that, he just kept on encouraging me,” Moses said about his the role.

“He went through what the position was all about, constantly talking to me in training to make sure I was improving in it. I took that in and I didn't look back.

“I have been learning a lot defensively. And when I play against a winger...I understand what they are going to do before they try and go past me, so it makes it a lot easier.”

As a wingback, Moses became a regular at Chelsea as they won game after game on their way to the title.

Eden Hazard recently described Moses as a ‘beast who keeps running and never gets tired’ and it was these qualities that Conte exploited to devastating effects.

His impressive stamina, strength and fitness made him the perfect fit for the right wing-back position. Harrying that right wing with vim and vigour gave Chelsea a new level of penetration and width that made them so deadly.

“You need a lot of stamina to be able to play that position, and it's a responsibility for me as well,” Moses also once said.

“Moses has important qualities: technique, physical strength, the ability to cover 70 metres of the pitch. I find it incredible that someone like him has been underestimated,” Conte told Gazzetta dello Sport in November 2016.

That season, Moses made 40 appearances for Chelsea in total and was hugely influential in their fantastic run in the Premier League and FA Cup- where they got to the final but lost to Arsenal.

It was in the Premier League that Moses was more effective, making made 22 consecutive Premier League starts from September 2016 to April 2017. 28 league starts and 33 league appearances in total to help Chelsea to the league title.

 

It was a season that rejuvenated the career of Moses who has since returned to become one the main players in the Super Eagles.

After two seasons as one of the main components at Chelsea, Conte’s departure and the arrival of Maurizio Sarri brings an uncertain future for Moses.

Sarri arrives in Chelsea on the back of three impressive seasons with Napoli who played some remarkable football under the chain-smoking Italian.

The former banker is hugely different from his compatriot Conte. While the former manager has built his success on solid defence and quick counter-attacking football, his successor loves his team to be entertaining with lots of emphasis on quick movement of the ball, pressing and passing.

His preferred formation is 4-3-3 with four defenders made up of two natural fullbacks, not wingbacks like Moses.

 

Therein lies the problem for the Nigeria international when he resumes pre-season.

Chelsea have already been linked with a host of right-backs indicating that they might not be a place for Moses.

Sarri, however, has a very good reputation of developing players or shaping the ones he has into his specific prototype.

There is hope for Moses at Chelsea with this. He already has the pace and strength to be effective in the attack which Sarri loves from his fullbacks but it is his defending that raises questions.

However, having done a lot of it as a wingback, could Moses evolve into a fullback with the help of Sarri?

Will Moses be happy to play as a defender to keep his place at Chelsea or move to get more freedom in attack elsewhere or will Sarri spur him to reenact his breakout days at Wigan as a delightful and exciting winger?

Under Conte, Moses has enjoyed two years as a Chelsea regular but these questions over his role in Sarri’s formation raises so many uncertainties about his future.