Matheus Cunha is actually better than Mohamed Salah at this one thing – it proves he’s irreplaceable at Wolves

Matheus Cunha has undoubtedly been Wolves’ player of the season during what’s been a tumultuous 2024/25 for the club.

The talented Brazilian forward has single handedly kept Wolves in with a shout of Premier League survival at times this season, having a hand in 17 of the Old Gold’s 40 goals thus far.

Thanks to Cunha, Vitor Pereira’s side now look to have staved off relegation for another year, with a supercomputer actually predicting that they don’t have to tally up another point in their final nine games of the campaign to avoid the drop.

With attentions now set to turn to the summer window, despite Cunha putting pen to paper on a new contract, fans are bracing themselves for an abundance of interest in their star player come June.

Having been of interest to no fewer than six top Premier League clubs during the winter window, Cunha’s new £62.5m release clause will make him a target for clubs like Arsenal and Nottingham Forest once again in the summer. And while Wolves will recoup a huge fee for their star players, there’s one stat which has emerged which proves that replacing Cunha may be an impossible task.

Matheus Cunha outperforms his xG more than Mohamed Salah and Alexander Isak

According to Opta, Cunha has outperformed his xG in the Premier League this season by a rather astounding 6.28 goals, meaning he has managed to bag 13 despite an xG of just 6.72.

That is well clear of both the league’s current top scorers in Mohamed Salah and Alexander Isak, who have outperformed their xG by 4.86 and 3.45 goals respectively.

The only player in the entire division who has a better goals vs xG rate is actually Chris Wood, who has netted 18 vs an xG of just 11.

Cunha’s ability to score goals from seemingly nothing has earned Wolves a multitude of valuable points throughout the 2024/25 campaign. One of the most notable instances of this came in a famous win over Manchester United which kickstarted Vitor Pereira’s reign at Molineux, with Cunha netting directly from a corner kick to earn his side all three points.

The forward’s penchant for the extraordinary has seen him receive five goal of the month nominations since December.

How Wolves could replace Matheus Cunha in the summer

If Cunha does leave, it’s going to be extremely difficult to find another forward with a similar ability to create goals for himself.

• READ MORE: Who is Matheus Cunha? Everything you need to know about Wolves’ world-class Brazilian forward

There are a few potential options in the Premier League for Wolves who could go some way to filling the void left by the Brazilian, with the likes of Ipswich Town’s Liam Delap being an interesting player who may hit the market this summer.

Further afield, January target Yuri Alberto could once again be of interest too. Interestingly, journalist Felippe Facincani recently insisted that the £50m-rated Alberto is in fact better than Cunha, saying: “Yuri Alberto is in a great moment. He is very decisive for Corinthians. He decides classics. In my opinion, he should be tested in the Brazilian national team.

“Matheus Cunha? Cool. But Yuri Alberto is at a point where he needs to at least be tested.”

Pereira is also a big fan of Alberto, having previously worked with the striker at Corinthians.