While the last whistle blew a vital victory for Wolverhampton Wanderers, Matheus Cunha was as still as he had done all night, he folded his knees a little, raised his fists to heaven and looked at tears.
It is generally done dressed in the captain’s armband.
The Brazil striker has the leader of the Molinine Pack; The hope of the wolves’ hope, their inspiration, their high and high game.
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This is not to minimize the influence of Nelson’s semedo, the guy selected to wear the armband and a player who sets an example on a grassroots basis in terms of approach to education, professionalism and attitude.
But on days of good form, Cunha, 25, led, and on the night of the boxing course, the Wolves Talisman led from the front, through the middle and on the wings in a deserved 2-0 victory over Manchester United.
Cunha will play 3 positions at the same time: an artistic No. 10, providing passes to his teammates, galloping wings and maraldo fields, a deep-lying playmaker to embarrass United defenders with bold turns, elusive pace adjustments and, On some occasions, scandalous actions that the united actors of the generations would have deployed, but that this crop turns out not to be able to produce.
Its functionality not only included an “Olympic” objective, a hand in the best seconds to start the Hwang Hee-chan score season and some brilliant skill moments, but also presented a lot of screams and gestures towards its teammates . who did not occupy the positions he wanted.
Matheus Cunha’s corner swings STRAIGHT IN and Wolves lead Man Utd ?#PLonPrime #WOLMUN pic.twitter.com/H0T3LvhzxG
— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) December 26, 2024
And for American readers:
? USA Network | #WOLMUN pic.twitter.com/qAH9yMv7PT
– NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportssoccer) December 26, 2024
At one point, he managed to rebuke Rayan Ait-Nouri and Joao Gomes with a single movement by the hand of a possessed.
The only surprise was that, when Diogo Dalot let fly in the first half with Manchester United’s best attempt of the game, it was Jose Sa who clawed it away with a full-stretch save and not Cunha sprinting back to make a goal-line clearance.
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“He’s a more sensible player, a special player,” Wolves head coach Vitor Pereira said at a post-match press conference after Cunha played a leading role in helping Wolves’ first manager since Sammy Chung in 1977 win his title. Two High-flying first matches in charge.
“He can do things that can make a difference in the small details. We paint in this corner but you can paint a lot and in the end nothing happens. But with these types of players things can happen.
“I notice the leaders within the team day in and day out. They’re connected, in communication, they need to do anything, and they need to replace things.
The dark cloud that is coming on the horizon is the probability that the wolves, in the not too distant future, in front of an extended was its main man.
The Independent Regulatory Committee met through the Football Association has not yet gathered to talk about Cunha’s punishment for his ordinary loss of composure after the 2-1 defeat against Ipswich Town in the last game of Gary O’Neil.
But when this is the case, it is most probably that wolves forward will be given a meaningful ban. A minimum beginning point seems to be the 3 games he would have missed if fit officials had witnessed his initial clash with an Ipswich member and shown him a red card for violent conduct.
However, more games would possibly be added due to the extent of the altercation.
Pereira’s training challenge is therefore twofold. In the background, you’ll have to come up with a plan to make the wolves paint without a player who has the integral figure of their attack plans, the kind through which all goes well.
But in the short term, he will have to draw inspiration from the psyche of a player who seemed determined to propel Wolves up the standings before his temporary absence.
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“He knows he lost a little of his emotions,” Pereira said about the Ipswich incident. “But he is an intelligent boy, a very intelligent person.
“And he has the strong personality to not stay in that moment, but to help the team in every match that he’s playing. He performed very well because in his mind he wants to help the team. He is not thinking about himself, but thinking about the team.”
The role of Cunha at the beginning of Pereira’s flight in the huge Premier League. He scored in each of his last 3 championship games, with only Henri Camara (with five in April 2004) playing a longer race for the Wolves in the Premier League.
And his ability means that in the not-too-distant future, Wolves will be forced to imagine life without him, with offers from richer clubs inevitable.
In the short term, they will face an undesirable flavor of what they look like in the long term, and the fate of their season would possibly count in the component of their ability to cope.
But for now, fans, teammates and the new Cunha coach can the emotion of sharing a stadium with a surprising type heights that few wolves players in the Premier League have reached.
(Top photo: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)