Matheus Cunha scored his fifth Premier League goal of the season for Wolves against Nottingham Forest, and the Brazilian is starting to really find his feet at Molineux.
The 24-year-old was on target in the 1-1 draw at Molineux, with Wolves showing good character to come from behind once again.
It was a disappointing performance as a collective overall though, and Gary O’Neil will be hoping for an improvement against West Ham United next weekend.
He’ll hope for another top performance from Cunha, who became the fourth Brazilian to score or assists in five consecutive league games on Saturday.
Cunha is a very interesting player, because for a lot of the season, he has been operating as a central striker for Wolves, which isn’t where he or O’Neil want him to be playing.
Since he signed in January, Cunha has led the line quite a few times for Wolves, which is something former manager Julen Lopetegui really thought he could do…
Julen Lopetegui was ‘convinced’ Matheus Cunha could master number nine role
Cunha came to Wolves in January, with the club paying Atletico Madrid around £44 million.
Wolves probably did overpay, but it was necessary to bring in reinforcements with the club in a very precarious position at the time.
Wolves needed a striker, but brought in Cunha, who wasn’t an out-and-out number nine but had been playing most of his matches for Atleti as a line-leading striker.
Cunha came in, and then Julen Lopetegui started to use him in the same kind of position. According to The Athletic, the Spaniard was ‘convinced’ that he could coach Cunha to master the position of being a proper number nine.
It quickly became apparent that Cunha would struggle to master the position, as he passed up a string of chances to score in games.
Although his finishing has improved a lot lately, Cunha has still spurned a number of good opportunities this term.
Cunha set for free role at Wolves
Cunha has had a fascinating stint at Wolves so far.
The intention may have been to use him as a central striker, but seemingly that plan was never right.
£60,000-a-week man Cunha was not prolific before he came to Molineux and then in the second half of last season we saw him get into great positions but fail to provide the finishes. We have seen that a few times again this season.
It’s been reported Gary O’Neil wants to sign a new striker so that he can hand Cunha a free role for Wolves, and Cunha himself said after the Forest draw that O’Neil wants him to be free.
It looks like there is now an acceptance that Cunha isn’t going to be Wolves’ leader of the line.