As the final whistle blew on a momentous Wolverhampton Wanderers victory, Matheus Cunha stood as still as he had all evening, bent his knees a little, raised his fists slightly to the heavens and looked close to tears.
The general thing is that he does it with the captain’s armband.
The Brazilian forward leading the pack at Molineux; The wolves’ ray of hope, their inspiration, their chosen one for big game hunting.
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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 in Fit Days, 25-year-old Cunha leading, and on the night of the boxing course, the Wolves Talisman led the Head-on, the middle and the wings in the deserved 2-0 win at Manchester United.
Cunha will play in 3 positions at once: an artistic number 10, providing passes to his colleagues, galloping wings and marauding midfielders, a deep playmaker. To embarrass united defenders with ambitious turns, elusive speed adjustments and, on some occasions, outrageous drags. that the united actors of generations would have deployed, but that this harvest turns out to be incapable of producing.
His performance included not just an ‘olimpico’ goal, a selfless assist in the final seconds to get Hwang Hee-chan’s goalscoring season up and running and some brilliant moments of skill, it also featured a whole load of shouting and gesticulating at team-mates who were not taking up 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 controlled to reprimand Rayan Ait-Nouri and Joao Gomes with a bachelor gesture on the hand of a possessed woman.
The only surprising thing is that, when Diogo Dalot released the ball in the first part in the most productive attempt of the Manchester United game, it was José Sa who made a complete stop and not Cunha who ran to clear the finish line.
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“He’s a top-level player, a special player,” Wolves’ new head coach Vitor Pereira said in the post-match press conference, after Cunha played a prominent role in helping him, being Wolves’ first manager since Sammy Chung in 1977. win their title. Two first matches of the top flight in charge.
“He can do things that can make a difference in the small details. We’ve been running in this corner, but you can paint a lot and in the end nothing happens. But with this type of player, things can happen.
“I notice the leaders within the team day after day. They are connected, in communication, they need to do anything and need to replace things.
The looming dark cloud looming on the horizon is the likelihood that the Wolves, in the not-too-distant future, will face a fate extended to their main man.
The Football Association-convened independent regulatory panel has yet to meet to discuss Cunha’s punishment for his extraordinary loss of composure in the wake of the 2-1 defeat to Ipswich Town in the final game of Gary O’Neil’s reign.
But when it does, it is likely that the Wolves forward will be handed a significant ban. A minimum starting point would appear to be the three matches he would have missed had the match officials witnessed his initial clash with an Ipswich staff member and shown him a red card for violent conduct.
However, there is a chance that more games will be added due to how the altercation is played out.
Pereira’s challenge as a coach is now twofold. Deep down, he wants to come up with a plan that will allow Wolves to function without a player who has the integral figure of their attacking plans: the kind through which all the smart ones happen.
But in the short term, he will have to be inspired by the psyche of a player who seemed determined to boost the Wolves in the classification before their transitory absence.
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“He knows he has lost some emotional control,” Pereira said about the Ipswich incident. “But he is a child, a true person.
“And he has the strong personality not to stay at that moment, but to help the team in each and every one of the games he plays. He directed himself very well because in his mind he needs to help the team. He doesn’t think about himself. He still thinks about the team. “
Cunha’s role in Pereira’s flying start to life in the Premier League has been huge. He has scored in each of his last three league games, with only Henri Camara (with five in April 2004) enjoying a longer run for Wolves in the Premier League.
And his skills means that in the long -term wolves too remote will be forced to contemplate life without it, with gifts from unavoidable richer clubs.
In the shorter term, they will face an unwanted taste of what that future might look like, and the destiny of their season might hinge in part on their ability to cope.
But for now, Cunha’s fans, teammates and new manager can take the thrill of sharing a stadium with a guy to surprising heights that few Wolves players in the Premier League have reached.
(Top photo: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)