Speaking with Matheus Cunha on the Wolves training field last summer, it was an opportunity to ask him how important it is for him to feel he enjoys on the football field. “I don't want to go on the field and be a robot,” he replied. “I want to enjoy it.”
View Cunha Play and that approach to the game shines through. Sometimes he can seem to wander where he chooses, making decisions off-the-manchet. But those decisions are often exciting. He is an outsider in a sport that feels more and more coached.
In the context of Gary Neville's comments about the recent Manchester Derby that is boring, and the subsequent reports that connect United to a movement for the Brazilian attacker, Cunha all makes one of the more intriguing transfer goals of the summer window.
Why? Because at one level Cunha is completely logical in one of those number 10 rolls in the 3-4-3 system of Ruben Amorim. He is already playing for wolves there. He can score goals, but also make them for others. His release costs of £ 62.5 million offers clarity for United.
On the other hand, there are questions about his temperament and while Cunha, who becomes 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 requirements and can consistently deliver within an organized pressure structure.
An alarming statistics that have been picked up is, for example, the fact that the Premier League tracking data reveals that no outfield player spends a higher percentage of their time than Cunha. He is a bite, someone who does things differently.
“I am an emotional man.” Cunha was self -conscious enough to say that during our conversation. But since then it has not stopped serving two important suspensions, where he loses control after a defeat against Ipswich and during a FA Cup -similar game in Bournemouth.
Cunha has been pronounced in calling local journalists and even bloggers in Wolverhampton after criticism this season. He remains a popular figure with fans, but one head coach Vitor Pereira says that the love of the people around him must feel.
United may have had a few in their history, but maintenance of a lot of maintenance at Wolves is one thing, that's another thing at Old Trafford. Yet Cunha has the talent to become a folk hero. He is still an important upgrade of their forward options at the moment.
The eruptions have certainly not dented his popularity with his teammates at Wolves. “Matheus Cunha is incredible,” Rodrigo Gomes tells Sky Sports. The young Portuguese wing back is with big eyes when they talk about playing next to Cunha.
Gomes adds: “He is a very creative player. Sometimes he has the ball and many players around him, but he can have a chance and make an assist and make a goal. It is very good to have a player like this because he can score a goal at any moment.”
While Gomes speaks about Cunha's “shooting and passing” as well as his “intelligence with the ball”, you speak to Wolves Captain Nelson Semedo, who 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 modest they are. I imagined how hard he had to work to reach the level he is.”
Semedo does not doubt the talent. “He is Brazilian! It's of course.” And sees a player coming to his peak years. “I would say in his prime.” The most interesting thing is that he tells a story from the game between Wolves and Manchester United in Molineux in December.
“I think he is the kind of player who is never, never happy with what he has, he always wants more, more, more. That is why we sometimes have to calm him down because I remember something against United when we won 1-0.
“We managed the game, did not attack every time, were simply compact. He had a chance. I can't remember who he gave the ball, but he waited for a pass back in the room for him.” The pass did not come. “He just got upset.”
Semedo explains: “I think what we needed during that period of the game was just to be [compact]. But this one [reaction] Is because he wants more because he is so ambitious. That's really good. That's why he's so good. I am pretty sure that he will get even better. “
He tips Cunha for “Big Things” and acknowledges that as the star player of Wolves he already has the target – “everywhere we play, they are noticing Cunha” – before he makes another relevant point. “And he is a very specific player,” says Semedo. That is its core.
There are not many players like Cunha who are there, a ball carrier who works on the front line, with the frame of a goalkeeper but the pace and the deception of a winger. At the moment Amorim forces the pieces to be fitted. But there is a place for Cunha.
He is at best operating like a wide forward in that left channel. From there he can play slanted steps, cut or run around the outside. It is important that, as he has shown in the past two seasons, he can score goals from those zones to support the striker.
Gary O'Neil tried to convert Cunha into a striker himself in his first full season at Wolves, a necessity in view of the lack of options on which his disposal was. It was a challenge because those instincts did not come easy for him. It is unlikely that he will be United's answer as a no. 9.
Speaking with O'Neil about this problem at the time, he outlined the problem. “He clearly has some fantastic individual attributes that can unlock things and get you on the field, 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 for minutes without touching the ball, but he constantly makes runs that threaten the back line, make room for others, and you know that as soon as the ball comes across, he starts to slide into it. “
O'Neil tried to hammer these points to Cunha. “People who actually look at the game will see that he came from the front, a little turn, threw it at the winger. Great. But how many goals did he get? How many assists did he get?” He had some success.
The figures improved, Cunha even scored a hat trick to Chelsea. But he has remained a player who prefers the ball to feet instead of gambling on the ball that make its way in the six-year box. Pereira has actually moved him further from the goal.
With Jorgen Stranden now the reference point, Cunha often picks up the ball deeper, on that half twist with the space to run in. United still had a glimpse of that when he won the free kick from which Pablo Sarabia scored the winner in Old Trafford.
More striking was his player-of-the-match version in the game there in the previous season, won a United 1-0, but Andre Onana escaped escaped the punishment for what looked like a clear error on Sasa Kalajdzic in the penalty box during stop time.
In a sense, it emphasizes one evening against United the Cunha pastel in Microkosmos. He was excellent and perfectly illustrated what the home team missed. But when O'Neil leaves the tiring attacker in the game, he used it badly.
He admitted so much in that conversation last summer. “One of my best games was against United at Old Trafford and he changed me. I started thinking:” Oh my God, this season will be difficult with this coach. It's my best game and he changes me, what can I do? “
When wolves were beaten in the next competition, this turned out to be too much for Cunha. “I didn't have a good reaction after two games and started doing crazy things and said that training was not the best and Gary came to me and said,” I'm with you, I'm not your enemy. “
O'Neil spoke around Cunha and the rest is history – as the highlight in two strong seasons that have given him praise, a new contract and, apparently, also a big move. The person who pays the Cunha release clause gets a special talent. But absolutely no robot.