Speaking to Matheus Cunha at Wolves’ training ground last summer, it was a chance to ask him how important it is for him to feel like he is having fun on the football pitch. “I do not want to go on the pitch and be a robot,” he replied. “I want to enjoy it.”
Watch Cunha play and that approach to the game shines through. At times, he can appear to wander where he chooses, making decisions off-the-cuff. But those decisions are often thrilling. He is a maverick in a sport that feels more and more coached.
In the context of Gary Neville’s comments about the recent Manchester derby being “boring”, and the subsequent reports linking United with a move for the Brazilian forward, it all makes Cunha one of the more intriguing transfer targets of the summer window.
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Sky Sports’ Sam Blitz explains why Wolves forward Matheus Cunha is so sought after
Why? Because on one level Cunha makes perfect sense in one of those No.10 roles within Ruben Amorim’s 3-4-3 system. He already plays there for Wolves. He can score goals but also create them for others. His £62.5m release fee offers clarity for United.
On the other hand, there are questions about his temperament and while Cunha, who turns 26 in May, is at the right age to make the big move of his career, some will ask if he can adapt to the demands and deliver consistently within an organised pressing structure.
For example, one alarming statistic that has been picked up on is the fact that the Premier League tracking data reveals no outfield player spends a higher percentage of their time walking than Cunha. He is an outlier, someone who does things differently.
“I am an emotional guy.” Cunha was self-aware enough to say that during our conversation. But it has not stopped him serving two significant suspensions since then, losing control after a defeat to Ipswich and during an FA Cup tie at Bournemouth.
Cunha has been outspoken in calling out local journalists and even bloggers in Wolverhampton following criticism this season. He remains a popular figure with fans but one head coach Vitor Pereira says needs to feel the love from those around him.
United may have had a few of those in their history, but being high maintenance at Wolves is one thing, being that way at Old Trafford is another. Even so, Cunha has the talent to become a folk hero. He is still a significant upgrade on their forward options at present.
The outbursts have certainly not dented his popularity among his team-mates at Wolves either. “Matheus Cunha is unbelievable,” Rodrigo Gomes tells Sky Sports. The young Portuguese wing-back is wide-eyed when talking about playing alongside Cunha.
Gomes adds: “He is a very creative player. Sometimes he has the ball and a lot of players around him but he can go and create a chance and make an assist and make a goal. It is very good to have a player like this because any minute he can score a goal.”
While Gomes talks of Cunha’s “shooting and passing” as well as his “intelligence with the ball”, speak to Wolves captain Nelson Semedo, who has played with both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, and he offers a fascinating assessment of Cunha as a human being.
“I always think of the person and their background first,” Semedo tells Sky Sports. “I went to his wedding and I saw where he came from, great parents, a very good family, how humble they are. I imagined how hard he has had to work to get to the level he is.”
Semedo does not doubt the talent. “He is Brazilian! It is natural.” And sees a player coming towards his peak years. “In his prime, I would say.” Most interestingly, he tells a tale from the game between Wolves and Manchester United at Molineux in December.
“I think he is the kind of player who is never, ever happy with what he has, he always wants more, more, more. That is why sometimes we have to calm him down because I remember something from that game against United when we were winning 1-0.
“We were managing the game, not attacking every time, just being compact sometimes. He had a chance. I cannot remember who he gave the ball to but he was waiting for a pass back into the space for him to go.” The pass did not come. “He just got upset.”
Semedo explains: “I think what we needed in that period of the game was just to be [compact]. But this [reaction] is because he wants more, because he is so ambitious. That is really good. It is why he is this good. I am pretty sure he will get even better.”
He tips Cunha for “big things”, acknowledging that as Wolves’ star player he already finds himself targeted – “everywhere we play, they have an eye on Cunha” – before making another pertinent point. “And he is a very specific player,” says Semedo. That is the crux of it.
There are not many players like Cunha out there, a ball-carrier who operates across the front line, with the frame of a target man but the pace and trickery of a winger. At the moment, Amorim is forcing the pieces to fit. But there is a place for Cunha.
He is at his best operating as a wide forward in that left channel. From there, he can play angled passes, cut in or run around the outside. Importantly, as he has demonstrated over the past two seasons, he can score goals from those zones to support the striker.
Matheus Cunha’s positioning and shooting for Wolves in the Premier League
Gary O’Neil attempted to convert Cunha into a striker himself in his first full season at Wolves, a necessity given the lack of options at his disposal. It was a challenge because those instincts did not come easily to him. He is unlikely to be United’s answer as a No 9.
Speaking to O’Neil about this issue at the time, he outlined the problem. “He obviously has some fantastic individual attributes that can unlock things and get you up the pitch but every time the ball is crossed I need my No 9 to be a threat. You have to be,” he said.
“If you use [Erling] Haaland as the best example, he can go minutes without touching the ball but he is constantly making runs threatening the back line, making space for others, and you know that as soon as the ball comes across he is going to be sliding in.”
Matheus Cunha’s minutes by position in his Premier League career so far
O’Neil tried to hammer home these points to Cunha. “People actually watching the game will see that he came off the front, did a little turn, popped it to the winger. Great. But how many goals has he got? How many assists has he got?” He had some success.
The numbers improved, Cunha even scoring a hat-trick away to Chelsea. But he has remained a player who prefers the ball to feet rather than gambling on the ball falling his way inside the six-yard box. Pereira has actually moved him further from the goal.
With Jorgen Strand Larsen now the reference point, Cunha often picks the ball up deeper, on that half turn with space to run into. United had another glimpse of that when he won the free-kick from which Pablo Sarabia scored the winner at Old Trafford.
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Highlights from the Premier League match between Manchester United and Wolves
More striking was his player-of-the-match performance in the game there in the previous season, one United won 1-0 nevertheless as Andre Onana escaped punishment for what looked like a clear foul on Sasa Kalajdzic inside the penalty box during stoppage time.
In a sense, that one evening against United highlights the Cunha conundrum in microcosm. He was outstanding, illustrating perfectly what the home side were missing. But when O’Neil substituted the tiring forward late in the game, he handled it badly.
He admitted as much in that conversation last summer. “One of my best games was against United at Old Trafford and he changed me. I started to think, ‘Oh my god, this season will be hard with this coach. It is my best game and he is changing me, what can I do?'”
When Wolves were beaten in the next game, it proved too much for Cunha. “I did not have a good reaction after two games and started to do crazy things saying training was not the best and Gary came to me and said, ‘I am with you, I am not your enemy.'”
O’Neil talked Cunha around and the rest is history – culminating in two strong seasons that have earned him acclaim, a new contract and, seemingly, a big move too. Whoever pays Cunha’s release clause will be getting a special talent. But definitely no robot.
