5️⃣ Biggest summer flops so far: Cunha, David, Wirtz and more 🧐 | OneFootball

With the international break arriving, we can draw a mini-assessment of the first two months for the new signings: who has done well and who, instead, hasn’t met expectations yet and still needs to settle in.

Let’s look at the most expensive signings who are having difficulties with their new teams.

Matheus Cunha

Bought for €74 million by Manchester United, Matheus Cunha, after some excellent seasons with Wolverhampton, is not repeating himself at the start of this season: 7 matches, zero goals, zero assists, and just 56% of available minutes played.

21 shots, 8 on target, 1.3 xG created but zero goals scored. Completely different numbers from last season, when he was one of the top 5 overperformers in Europe (here’s the top 5).

This is his worst start in the Premier League (excluding the season he arrived in January from Atlético Madrid), compounded by elimination from the Carabao Cup against a fourth-division side—a game in which Cunha started.

Jonathan David

Jonathan David’s adaptation (costing €12.5 million in fees + €6 million net and €2 million in bonuses) is not going smoothly either: after some early flashes and quality in ball management, the striker experienced a rapid dip, also due to Tudor’s choices, as he hasn’t identified a primary striker.

For him, one goal on his debut against Parma and one assist against Inter, but the recent memory is dominated by errors that went viral: the open-goal miss against Villarreal and the awkward slip in the box against Milan.

The verdict isn’t final, but his start has been inadequate: “Openda and David need to understand that the Italian league is very different from the others they’ve played in, in terms of mentality, system, and style of play”, said David Trezeguet.

Florian Wirtz

After a €137 million summer move, Florian Wirtz still has to find his first goal for Liverpool, while he has provided only one assist in the Community Shield lost to Crystal Palace.

The 2003-born talent is struggling in the final third but is heavily involved in Liverpool’s play; he receives the ball in much deeper areas than at Bayer Leverkusen and is being asked to do triple duty: build-up, pressing, and tracking back, with license to roam on both flanks.

The key point lies in that word: Wirtz has the “license” to attack creatively, but in these early games that hasn’t been his primary task. The numbers show it: he’s the 5th player in the Premier League for distance covered and Liverpool’s 1st overall—not exactly playmaker duties.

Jobe Bellingham

While Borussia Dortmund have started the Bundesliga strongly, the same can’t be said for Jobe Bellingham: just 301 minutes played, only 3 starts, 0 goals and 0 assists on the board.

The midfielder, bought for €38 million from Sunderland, has struggled to find consistency and, when starting, hasn’t delivered standout performances. Coach Niko Kovač is shielding him from external criticism despite some family interference.

In fact, Jobe’s parents were reportedly banned from the dressing room after a heated exchange with Kovač directly after the match against St. Pauli, in which Bellingham was substituted. The player is only 20 and has time to shake off the situation, but the environment around him isn’t ideal.

Lucas Chevalier

Expectations for Lucas Chevalier seem to be holding so far: a goalkeeper clearly better with his feet than Donnarumma, but also a less effective shot-stopper than Gigio.

Costing €40 million in the summer, the French keeper has conceded 8 goals across all competitions against a post-shot xG of 4.7 despite 5 clean sheets: a clear underperformance. Two moments stood out: the mistake in the Classique against Marseille and the error on Ethan Mbappé’s goal against Lille.

The comparison with Donnarumma is inevitable, and at least for this season he’ll have to carry it, always keeping in mind that his signing is largely due to his qualities with the ball at his feet: “He touches a lot of balls; he’s really the eleventh outfield player”, to quote Courtois’s video analyst, Thierry Barnerat.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.

📸 Justin Setterfield - 2025 Getty Images