Parramatta star Mitchell Moses has labelled former club Wests Tigers the in-form team of the NRL and believes they have found the right formula under coach Ivan Cleary.

Moses takes on the Tigers for the second time since leaving the club in acrimonious circumstances halfway through the season last year and joining the Eels.

But ten months on and he admits that this year’s Tigers have changed their stripes.

“I’m very happy for all my mates over on that side, they are probably the in-form team of the comp. If that penalty (last week) goes their way, they’re probably coming first on the ladder,’ Moses said.

The Tigers have emerged as arguably the most improved side of competition through the first three rounds, conceding a league-best 25 points combined.

And Moses, who played first four seasons at the joint-venture club, has noticed.

“What Ivan is doing over there is working. You can see they have had a big emphasis on their defence during the pre-season,” he said.

“They haven’t scored many points but that will come, it’s only the start of the year. I’m very happy for them, Ivan is doing a great job with them.”

In contrast, Moses and the Eels are attempting to avoid a fourth straight loss to open the season in a year where they were widely tipped to finish in the top four.

And while they have also scored just four points in their past 253 minutes of football, Moses remains confident that a breakthrough victory isn’t far away.

“The way we defended (against Cronulla) last week, we’ll take a bit of confidence out of that but we’ve got to get our attack better,” he said.

“(Me and Corey Norman) had a whole preseason together. We felt confident going into the season, we just need a bit of luck to go our way. Hopefully we can change that.”

Moses concedes his individual form hasn’t been up to scratch, but reckons a higher possession rate will trigger better execution with the ball.

“I’ve been putting a big focus on defence at the moment. I feel comfortable in that situation,” he said.

“In two of the three games we’ve had 39 per cent of possession for the whole game. When we do have the ball we’re pretty zapped. That’s where we have to take control and try to get 50-50 possession.”