Matheus Cunha is exactly the signing Manchester United needed | OneFootball

“A little bit of a maverick,” Tom Heaton says when asked to describe his “fantastic” new Manchester United teammate, Matheus Cunha.

The 39-year-old goalkeeper — more coach than player in Ruben Amorim’s squad, but a trusted member of the Portuguese coach’s leadership group nonetheless — remains an influential voice at Old Trafford.

So when Heaton says Cunha has “brought really good energy into the dressing room” since arriving from Wolverhampton Wanderers in the summer, his words carry weight — especially when you consider the shirt number the Brazil international wears.

Amorim’s No 10 Priority

One of the consistent principles dictating the Red Devils’ approach in the transfer market since INEOS took the helm last year has been a focus on improving the culture in the dressing room.

Speaking earlier in the season, sporting director Jason Wilcox candidly revealed that “taking players out of the squad is just as important as the players that you bring in”.

“We’ve got to try and bring the culture and the respect back to Man United,” he stated – a clear reference to Amorim’s infamous ‘bomb squad’.

This group, comprising Antony, Alejandro Garnacho, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Tyrell Malacia, were made to train separately from the first team and excluded from the pre-season tour of the United States. They were told they had no future at the club and should seek exits in the summer.

As the transfer window slammed shut on September 1, only Malacia – the least explosive member of the squad – remained. Neck and neck for the most incendiary of Amorim’s undesirables, however, were Rashford and Garnacho.

INEOS undoubtedly viewed the former – a 28-year-old with a history of unprofessionalism and underperformance, and three years remaining on a contract worth in excess of £300,000 a week – as a bigger problem than the latter.

The fact that Garnacho was able to complete a £40 million switch to Chelsea, while Rashford could only convince Barcelona to agree to a season-long loan for his expensive services, confirmed the ownership’s concerns.

Rashford’s fate at the Theatre of Dreams was effectively sealed the moment he declared his intention to leave last December, after Amorim dropped him for the Manchester derby, alongside Garnacho.

Following the 2–1 triumph over City, Rashford responded to his head coach questioning his attitude by releasing an unauthorised interview in which he stated that he was “ready for a new challenge” away from his boyhood club.

The timing of the message was even more egregious than its wording – and the Carrington graduate has not played for United since. Garnacho, by comparison, was immediately reintegrated after taking on board Amorim’s criticism, though the Argentine dug his own grave just six months later.

Rashford spent the second half of the 2024/25 campaign at Aston Villa after a loan deal was hastily agreed in the winter window, before then agreeing the same move to Barcelona come the summer. Yet the clearest indication that his time at Old Trafford was over came with Cunha’s arrival, when United confirmed the Brazilian would inherit the Englishman’s No 10 shirt.

According to the Daily Mail, Amorim viewed Cunha as his “number one priority” following defeat in the Europa League final against Tottenham Hotspur — with shifting the existing No 10 perhaps next on the agenda.

“Amorim had been sowing the seed of a move for months, both with Cunha – collared in the Old Trafford tunnel after Wolves beat United 1–0 in April, when he asked about his thoughts on the atmosphere – and with the board, drawn by the Brazilian’s character as well as his tactical versatility,” the report details.

Cunha established himself as one of the Premier League’s most effective forwards for Wolves, despite consistently playing in a side on the precipice of relegation during his time in the Black Country.

Matheus Cunha's 2024-25 stats (courtesy footystarts.org)

The 26-year-old forward was therefore an obvious target for the Red Devils after their worst campaign in the Premier League era. United produced a paltry 44 goals – only Everton and the three relegated clubs, Leicester City, Ipswich Town and Southampton, scored less – while slumping to a dismal 15th-place finish.

Amorim diagnosed a move for Cunha, along with fellow summer recruit Bryan Mbuemo, as the antidote, with their Premier League pedigree deemed essential to curing the attacking malaise at Old Trafford.

Yet it has been Cunha’s attitude off the pitch, as much as his prowess on it, that has proved central to United’s improvement this season – as Heaton identified – with the culture in Amorim’s dressing room transformed.

The Theatre of a Brazilian’s Dream

Perhaps the most refreshing aspect of Cunha signing, even more than his silky samba skills and shining smile, has been just how much it means for him to wear the Red shirt.

The Brazilian was subject to considerable interest across the Premier League over the summer, with his £62.5m release clause at Molineux viewed as excellent value by England’s elite. But he only had eyes for United, rebuffing offers elsewhere in favour of joining Amorim’s revolution and describing the move as a “dream come true”.

Compared to the counter-revolutionaries he arrived in place of, Rashford and Garnacho, it’s night and day. Above all else, fans want their players to care as much about their club as they do – and Cunha passes this test with distinction.

In fact, the Daily Mail reports the “overwhelming consensus” from sources at Old Trafford focuses precisely on that: how much Cunha cares.

“He cares a lot about fulfilling his potential, cares a lot about injecting life into an ever-changing dressing room, cares a lot about getting to know club staff, cares a lot about connecting with fans, cares a lot about his own numbers,” insiders reveal.

Cunha is a polyglot – fluent in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish, with a sprinkling of Italian – and this has already helped “make him a centrepiece” of his new team.

“Team-mates flock to him and he has struck up a particularly close relationship with Luke Shaw since arriving. Academy players who have stepped into first-team training sessions rave privately about Cunha for helping them settle in,” the report reveals.

This personable approach extends beyond the dressing room as well, as Cunha interacts “directly” with club staff, rather than through an agent like other players.

There are also “countless tales” of his work outside of football, with the Daily Mail highlighting his attendance at a Christmas lunch for the Manchester United Disabled Supporters’ Association (MUDSA), where Cunha was moved by a blind supporter’s story and “spent 15 minutes talking to him about his experiences of following the team.”

There are downsides on the pitch to Cunha’s emotionally-charged approach, however.

He was sent off twice last season and charged with misconduct by the FA after repeatedly losing control, though there is a sense that Amorim would rather harness a player with too much fire in his belly than try to stoke one without any – which the Portuguese coach acknowledged earlier in the season.

“We need that crazy guy where the world is on fire but you say ‘I don’t care’. It’s not just the leaders but the maverick guys that we need in the team,” Amorim revealed in October.

Additionally, Cunha also allows mistakes to stay with him in a way which is counterproductive, inhibiting performances rather than helping them.

Figures close to the Brazilian point to his missed penalty in the defeat to Grimsby Town — which would have won the shootout — as a “moment that took a while to get over.” In reality, it was Mbeumo’s miss that eliminated United from the Carabao Cup, yet the Cameroonian responded in the very next game by scoring a goal.

Other chances Cunha has squandered throughout the season — at home to Arsenal, away to Fulham, at Wolves, and, more recently, a header that would have salvaged a point against Aston Villa — have “needed flushing out the system”.

It’s important to care as a footballer, but only about things you can control. A world-class forward forgets a missed chance the moment it whistles past the post.

Cunha must cultivate an emotional detachment in the opposition box to pair alongside the blood and thunder he demonstrates elsewhere on the pitch.

He also needs to listen to those around him, and recognise that his value to the team extends beyond goals and assists — as his monumental display at Anfield earlier in campaign demonstrated.

Amorim believes Cunha has been “thinking too much about the numbers” this season: “I think he has more levels to go. He’s in a different club, different pressure. He coped with that really well, but he feels that he wants to score, he wants to assist.”

But the 40-year-old coach stresses the “influence that [Cunha] has in the team is so important for us” — a view mirrored by Ayden Heaven, with the 19-year-old defender remarking how Cunha has “just given us all confidence to play”.

“He is going to help the team and help us to improve. He’s quite lively in the changing room so he’s fitted in well. You always need that in in the changing room and he plays a big role.”

It is a motif when Cunha’s teammates are describing him that they specifically reference his effect in the changing room as much as on the pitch. And it’s this uplift — driven by Cunha’s desire and attitude — which validates United’s decision to prioritise the Brazilian No 10’s signing over the summer, while ensuring the his predecessor was not allowed to return.

In a recent interview with ESPN Brazil, Cunha reiterated his intention to restore United back to the pantheon of world football: “I think our mentality this season, of doing everything we can to bring United back to its glory days, is the most important thing for me. How we are working, how we have sacrificed to the maximum so that this happens again.”

Even when 26-year-old is describing his own ambition, it is still in service of the collective. His personal drive for success is synonymous with his desire to bring his new club back to the level he believes it belongs.

Put simply, he cares, as much about Manchester United as a club — and every person attached to it, be they a teammate, a secretary, or a fan — as himself. That is the culture INEOS and Amorim have been seeking to re-establish at Old Trafford — and they have found their champion for it.

Featured image Alex Pantling via Getty Images

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