Matheus Nunes sent Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola a big message with his latest international performance.
The midfielder has only started six of the 11 Premier League games he’s appeared in this season since arriving from Wolves back in the previous summer transfer window in a deal worth £53m.
Now though, while away on international duty with Portugal, the 25-year-old has delivered a performance that would have surely caught Guardiola’s eye.
Nunes impresses for Portugal
In Portugal’s recent 5-2 friendly win over Sweden, Nunes found himself in the starting XI and completed 63 minutes before being replaced by Joao Neves.
During his time on the pitch, the City player got on the scoresheet as he netted Portugal’s second goal of the game in the 33rd minute, a goal which was assisted by Bernardo Silva.
The midfielder also managed to test the Sweden goalkeeper with another shot on target, in addition to accurately completing 20 of the 23 passes he attempted.
His performance ultimately earned the former Wolves star an overall match rating of 7.4/10 from SofaScore, which is higher than the ratings fellow City teammates Silva (7.3/10) and Ruben Dias (6.8/10) managed to get for themselves.
Bearing in mind how Nunes has yet to score a goal for the Citizens, the fact that he netted for his country in this recent game will have shown Guardiola that he does have what it takes to be a threat in front of goal.
Having only had three shots at goal in the league this season for City, two of them have been on target, which shows that he can be a threat in front of goal when he finds himself in attacking positions.
Even though the Manchester club will be entering a crucial period of their season once the current international break ends and regular starts could be difficult to come by, Nunes will have to do everything he can to convince Guardiola he has what it takes to deliver on the pitch whenever he gets the chance.