There's a selection dilemma regarding Matheus Cunha as Wolves face Leicester in the Premier League.placeholder image
There's a selection dilemma regarding Matheus Cunha as Wolves face Leicester in the Premier League. | Getty Images
Man Utd have signed Wolves playmaker Matheus Cunha but who does the Brazilian remind us of?
It’s not always easy to compare the modern game to that of the past, especially for a club like Man Utd given how many legends that there have been in it’s not so distant past.
The easiest example, is how can Bruno Fernandes be fairly compared to someone like Paul Scholes. The formations are different with the biggest difference being the quality of players around them. United could have coped without Scholes when he was in his pomp, but the current team will be glad that Fernandes has chosen to stay, such is the way in which he carries the team.
Ruben Amorim has started the transfer window with serious intent, targeting a series of attacking players with the hope more goals will come and creativity will no longer be as problematic.
Most United fans will know what type of player Cuhna is, but who out of their club’s illustrious past could the Brazilian be a carbon copy of?
Man Utd signing Matheus Cunha is “emotional maverick”
First of all, getting to know the 26-year old playmaker hints at what he could bring to the Old Trafford masses: "I always think of the person and their background first," Wolves skipper Nelson Semedo told 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."
“He is Brazilian! It is natural." Semedo said of Cunha’s natural ability and when asked about where he is in his career replied: "In his prime, I would say." Semedo also told of an incident earlier in the season when Wolves were winning 1-0, a scoreline that wasn’t enough for Cunha.
"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." No wonder Sky Sports referred to Cunha as an “emotional maverick”.
What Man Utd legend is Matheus Cunha most like?
A perfectionist, a maverick, capable of scoring a goal out of nothing, a creator as well as a goalscorer and with a bit of a temper, a spiky, competitive edge? It’s an almost word, for word, description of Eric Cantona.
This isn’t to say that Cunha is on the same level as the great Frenchman, but in terms of presence, aura, and what he could bring to United. He is exactly what Amorim needs. A character with confidence in his ability and who can back up his attitude with numbers.
Cantona wasn’t a dribbler in the way that Cunha is or as fast, but the game changes and positions require different skill sets. There has been an absence of a mercurial magician in the mould of Cantona for sometime and who better than a Samba king to fill that void?
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