Gary O’Neil welcomed Matheus Cunha back to the Wolves starting XI on Saturday – and after the draw with Nottingham Forest, he again admitted he did not like using him as a number nine.
Wanderers played out 2-2 draw with Forest, and it was a hard-fought point on the road against Nuno Espirito Santo’s side at the City Ground.
Cunha scored two goals, his first being a magnificent solo effort, which Mario Lemina has since subbed the ‘Goal of the Season’.
The Brazilian was back starting for the first time since returning from his ‘significant’ hamstring injury that ruled him out for just under two months.
In previous games, O’Neil has been forced to turn to youngsters such as Leon Chiwome, Nathan Fraser and Tawanda Chirewa, but Cunha was back on Saturday – and the difference with him playing was significant.
He played as a number nine, but Gary O’Neil admitted he doesn’t want him there and shared the position he’d like to get him back in…
Gary O’Neil shares where he would now like to play Matheus Cunha for Wolves
It has long been known that Cunha is not an out-and-out central striker.
He’s played right up top several times this season for Wolves, but O’Neil has previously spoken about not using him there as it doesn’t get the best out of his skillset.
Cunha is an excellent ball-carrier, as we saw with his first goal against Forest on Saturday.
He has a lot of pace, close ball control, excellent balance and strength, making him really difficult to dispossess.
With this in mind, O’Neil is looking to get Cunha playing back out on the left side, which is a role he was playing just before his injury blow.
O’Neil said (via Wolves official): “It was a really good run and finish from him. I don’t like him much playing in the position that we played him today, and he doesn’t like it much either, but he had to play as a nine today and you could see he comes down a lot and he drifts and he’s not naturally in the nine position often.
“We’re keen to get him back in his best spot which is where his goal came from, on that left side. But we’re delighted with the set-play goal because we’ve worked hard on those, a free header from Max [Kilman] at the back and some good work from the coaching team to get us that one.”
Previously, it has been reported that Cunha has had to be talked into leading the line at Wolves for the good of the team.
Cunha is great from the left side
Cunha does look really effective from that left side, because of the way he combines his pace, power and technical ability.
The £60,000-a-week ace didn’t really crop up there much against Forest as he has asked to do a job leading the line.
But we saw with his goal how effective he can be, and it is little wonder O’Neil would like to get him into that position more moving forward.
With Hwang Hee-chan now back in the picture, you would imagine Cunha will be playing from that left side, with the South Korean operating through the middle, and Pablo Sarabia to the right.
At this point though, Wolves fans won’t mind too much where Cunha plays, just so long as he does. He is extremely important to Wanderers now and the collective goal threat increases considerably when he is on the field.
