Martin O'Neill believes Aston Villa are seeing the best of central defender Carlos Cuellar after he followed skipper Stiliyan Petrov by taking time to adjust from Scottish football to the Barclays Premier League.
Petrov was O'Neill's first signing as Villa boss in a £6million switch from Celtic and it was two seasons before he demonstrated his full potential.
Cuellar was bought from Rangers for £5million in the summer of 2008 and he failed to do himself justice last season and often played out of position at right-back.
But the Spaniard, who is hoping to force his way into his country's World Cup squad, has been a vastly improved performer during the current campaign and helped Villa into the top four ahead of Saturday's home clash with Stoke.
O'Neill told Press Association Sport: "People ask if there are comparisons between Carlos and Stiliyan in taking time to adapt from Scottish football and that would probably be a fair point.
"Last season Carlos came to us having had no pre-season whatsoever because of having been stop-start with injuries up at Rangers.
"He played a lot of games for us at right-back last season as well, especially when Luke (Young) was out injured towards the end of the season.
"But he never complained and got on with it. He has adjusted and got used to the pace of the Premier League. Now we are seeing the best of him.
"He has gone into the middle of defence in recent weeks, with James Collins having been injured, which is his real position, and he is playing terrifically for us."
