What now for Chelsea’s Victor Moses?

Chelsea have been collecting attacking midfielders over the last couple of years, which has given them a real log jam. With Mata, Hazard, Oscar, De Bruyne, Schurrle, Piazon, Marin and possibly the arrival of Marko van Ginkel to compete with, Victor Moses is possibly the odd one out. It’s a little unfair on Moses who enjoyed a really solid debut season at Chelsea, scoring 10 and making five goals. All the more impressive considering that he made 16 of his 44 appearances from the bench. By any normal measure, it’s a good first season, and if Rafa Benitez was still in charge there wouldn’t be this discussion. But can he forge himself a role under Jose Mourinho or would a move to Everton under his old boss Roberto Martinez make more sense?

Jose Mourinho teams play a quick counter attacking style and play with width when transitioning to attack. In theory then, this makes Victor Moses an ideal candidate. He is one of Chelsea’s fastest players, is a direct runner, full of trickery and showed improved decision making last season. Mourinho is going to play either a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 system and Moses is ideal on the right of either of those. He gets goals and, under Benitez last year, started to show willingness to track runners in a more disciplined defensive side to his game.

All of that sounds like it could be appealing to Mourinho but there are only so many players he can fit in to the team. All of the attacking players listed above have pace. They can all score goals, they are all direct. It might be a case of Moses losing his place in the queue just because there are so many other options. Even though he cost £7m last summer, they may feel his ceiling is lower than some of his rivals for a spot in the side and he’d lose his place in the hierarchy. But he’ll be very desirable.

The best place for Moses to go is Everton. This is for two reasons; firstly, he will reunite with Roberto Martinez, his old Wigan manager, and that Martinez will be, in all likelihood, implementing a system in which Moses can thrive. Martinez’s Wigan played with wingers and wing backs in his endless search for width, pace and variety in attack. Moses would be a perfect compliment for Kevin Mirallas. Moses keeps wide so can play on the right, allowing Mirallas to come in from the left in to central areas with Baines providing the width on the left.

With this in mind, Everton could then look at playing Steven Pienaar centrally, or if they want him on the left, Mirallas centrally. Either way, signing Moses would give Everton more options in attack. Martinez’s attacking patterns are all about variety and movement, and so bringing in Moses would help to enable that from the rest of the team.

Chelsea would probably ask for something in the region of £10m for Moses, but considering all of their other options Everton may be able to get him for £8m or so, representing a small profit for Chelsea. He’d be an ideal compliment to the Everton attack and may be better served going there. However, if Jose Mourinho is impressed with his pace and skill on the counter attack, he may well be reluctant to sanction him going.