Wolverhampton Wanderers boss Gary O’Neil has opened up on some ‘fascinating’ conversations with Matheus Cunha.
You could hardly blame Gary O’Neil for still being in cloud nine after Saturday’s win over Bournemouth.
The Cherries decided to axe O’Neil at the end of last season, bringing in Andoni Iraola to replace him.
O’Neil saw his Wolves side battle back from a goal down to claim a 2-1 win with Matheus Cunha and Sasa Kalajdzic finding the net.
O’Neil managed to take some revenge on Bournemouth and will be delighted to already be eight points clear of his former club after Saturday’s win.
Gary O’Neil opens up on Matheus Cunha
Wolves fans were given an incredible insight into O’Neil’s managerial approach as he spoke on Sky Sports on Monday night.
O’Neil praised the quality of the Wolves squad whilst suggesting that the players aren’t really used to having this much structure in the tactical approach.
O’Neil specifically highlighted Matheus Cunha here, suggesting that he has ‘fascinating conversations’ with the Brazilian.
Cunha wants to get on the ball ‘all the time’ and often comes deep or wide just to get involved.
O’Neil accepts that Cunha is good at that, but sometimes wants him to stay forward as a fixed number nine to keep the structure for Wolves.
Interchanging with Hwang Hee-chan is one thing O’Neil suggested, seemingly not wanting to completely restrict Cunha’s natural game.
“The quality within the group is incredible. They have played very different to this, they have never really had so much structure and they have been used to being loose. I speak to Cunha a lot about it; we have some fascinating conversations around him wanting to touch the ball all the time,” said O’Neil.
“So, trying to have a structure, Cunha will end up under my feet at some point down here with the ball and it’s like, yeah, we know you’re good at that, but we need to be in structure where we can. Can you operate more as a nine? Maybe interchange with Channy, maybe have some fluidity, but let’s not be loose and let’s not be everywhere,” he added.
Cunha still needs to do more for Wolves
Cunha scored a fine goal against Bournemouth, bringing Wolves level with a superb finish.
The 24-year-old clearly has real quality but there is no getting away from the £44million that Wolves paid to sign him from Atletico Madrid.
That’s a huge fee for Wolves to pay and Cunha ultimately needs to contribute more goals to repay that price tag.
Cunha has scored just four times in 30 games for Wolves and O’Neil will understandably want more from him moving forward.
Saturday’s goal showed the kind of quality Cunha can provide around the box, and O’Neil will want him to do more of that rather than drifting wide to get on the ball.