Mark Hughes has claimed Victor Moses learned the art of defending at Stoke. Moses spent the 2014/15 season on loan with the Potters but injuries limited him to just 23 appearances in all competitions, reports dailystar.co.uk.
That was one of three loan spells for the 26-year-old before establishing himself at Chelsea this term.
He has reinvented himself as a wing-back under the guidance of Antonio Conte following the Blues boss’ switch to a 3-4-3 formation. But Hughes claims his coaching team deserve credit for Moses’ defensive skills.
The Stoke boss said: “I’m not surprised at all by how he’s been doing, although when he got here he couldn’t defend.
“We taught him how to defend and they’re reaping the benefits!”
Stoke travel to Stamford Bridge on New Year’s Eve hoping to end Chelsea’s run of 12 consecutive wins.
The Potters head into the clash 13th in the Premier League table following a run of four games without a win.
Hughes is backing his team to halt Chelsea’s winning streak.
Since losing 3-0 to Arsenal, Chelsea have won 12 straight games in the Premier League.
The Blues are currently top of the English Premier League table.
“They have a manager who has good experience. He’s gone in and implemented his plans very quickly.
“They’re on a great run, but that has to come to an end at some point. Why can’t we be the team that does that.
“We’ve lost games where we should have done better, we’ve had games where we’ve overachieved, we’re certainly progressing.”
Meanwhile, Moses’ importance to Chelsea has been underlined by the club’s former assistant manager, Ray Wilkins, who said the Nigeria international is currently irreplaceable.
The 26-year-old winger has been thriving since the arrival of Antonio Conte as manager and has featured in 17 of the Blues’ 18 league games, scoring three goals and providing several assists from his new wing-back position.
Wilkins says that when taking Conte’s squad into account, Moses would be even tougher to replace than stars such as N’Golo Kante and Diego Costa.
“Easy to play down the importance of Victor Moses but when you look around the squad, he is one player who appears not to have a replacement in the team at the moment,” Wilkins said.
“Diego Costa and N’Golo Kante are players you think they can’t replace but in the squad they have players who play similar role as them, so easy to replace them unlike Moses.”
