One of Gary O’Neil’s greatest triumphs at Wolves was getting the best out of Matheus Cunha.
O’Neil inherited Cunha from Julen Lopetegui, as the former Wolves manager signed the Brazilian from Atletico Madrid in January 2023.
After a slow start, the forward found his identity, proving to himself that the Premier League was a competition made for him.
Things weren’t always that way, however, as under Lopetegui, Cunha struggled to live up to his £44m price tag, but everything changed when O’Neil took the reins.
Pre-season Training Game - Wolverhampton Wanderers v Bristol City FC
Photo by Jack Thomas – WWFC/Wolves via Getty Images
Gary O’Neil’s secret to getting Matheus Cunha firing at Wolves
The Englishman has just broken his silence after being sacked by Wolves back in December following a relegation-threatening start to the 2024/25 campaign.
At the point of O’Neil’s departure, Wolves sat five points from safety and had conceded as many as 40 goals in 16 games, but the former boss’s time wasn’t a complete disaster.
O’Neil spoke about the difficulty of selling Pedro Neto after finding a way to get the best out of the winger, which he also managed to do with Cunha.
Speaking to The Guardian, O’Neil admitted he was ‘fortunate’ that both of the former Wolves stars were ready and willing to learn and improve.
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“I was fortunate that Matheus and Pedro were both at an age where they were still ready to lap that stuff up,” O’Neil said.
The 42-year-old explained to the interviewing journalist Jacob Steinberg that ‘so much work’ went into finding ways to improve Cunha.
O’Neil ‘focused on’ transforming the 26-year-old into an ‘inside left’, hoping to open the Brazilian’s eyes to bending shots into the far corner on his right foot.
That was certainly something we saw and enjoyed numerous times over the 2024/25 campaign from Cunha.
Another thing was to alter the player’s ‘mentality’, with the aim being to make him ‘more diligent’ without jeopardising his ‘maverick talent’.
O’Neil worked tirelessly to get Cunha to the next level, and it’s fair to say that the former Wolves manager did just that.
Wolves will be grateful for O’Neil’s work with Cunha
There’s no doubt that Cunha’s talent was always there to see, but O’Neil had a challenge to tend to in order to get the best out of the Brazilian.
The English coach turned the 26-year-old from a goal-shy Atletico Madrid outsider to a £62.5m goal-hungry Premier League maverick.
2022/23 2023/24 2024/25
Appearances 17 32 33
Goals 2 12 15
Assists 0 7 6
Conversion % 8% 16% 14%
Big chances created 1 7 13
Key passes p/g 0.4 0.9 1.8
Successful dribbles p/g 1.5 2.0 1.8
Matheus Cunha in the Premier League at Wolves – Sofascore
Wolves would’ve almost certainly lost money on Cunha had O’Neil not arrived and paid the Brazil international special attention, as many doubted the forward’s potential when he first arrived.
Cunha’s stay at Molineux ended with a £62.5m transfer to a ‘big six’ side, earning the Old Gold a profit from a player who was completely transformed in the West Midlands.