Moses has been used as a substitute in Liverpool’s past three matches, so what does he need to do to become a regular starter?
Ever since his debut goal against Swansea City, Victor Moses has been a little muted whilst playing for Liverpool.
Having moved to Anfield on-loan for the season from Chelsea, Moses will have been fancying his chances of some regular playing time at Anfield, but as he has found out, competition for places at the club is fiercer than it has been for a good few years.
Moses is quoted in the Liverpool Echo saying: ‘It might seem I’ve been around for a long time but I’m still only 22.
‘I think I can develop a lot more but I realise to achieve that I’ve got to play as much as possible.’
Since he arrived at the club, Moses has made nine appearances for the club, six of them from the start of the game as manager Brendan Rodgers has experimented with the side with a couple of different systems.
Moses started a couple of games wide on the left before Rodgers opted for a system with three central defenders meaning that Moses was played in a role at the head of the midfield supporting the attacking duo of Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge.
But it seems quite clear that Philippe Coutinho is the preferred choice of Rodgers to take up that position, and with Moses recently being used as an impact substitute against Arsenal and Everton – it is difficult to see how Rodgers will use him from the start at this moment in time.
The likelihood is that the Northern Irishman won’t persist with playing one striker up front with any great regularity after starting with just Luis Suarez in attack on Saturday – which seems to be Moses’ main route back into the starting line-up without any injury problems – even though Joe Allen was given the nod ahead of him on Saturday.
It is difficult to think that Moses won’t get his chance as the fixtures get busier – at the age of 22, he should be fresher and cope with the demands of the Christmas period quite readily and will freshen the side up.
What he’ll need to do when he gets that chance is get at defenders like he did against Swansea, and play with the same kind of intelligence he did when he entered the action against Everton – and he must provide a goal threat.
That way, it may be hard for him not to start.
image: © Tomofumi Kitano
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