Wolverhampton Wanderers new boy Matheus Cunha has spoken highly of manager Julen Lopetegui and the players at the club upon his arrival.
Wolves announced the loan signing of Cunha on Christmas Day from Atletico Madrid in what is the first signing of the Lopetegui era. The Brazilian will be eligible to play for the club from 1st January, and should the player sign permanently, his contract with Wolves will be until 2027.
Speaking to Wolves’ website, Cunha said that Lopetegui is a ‘great person’ and was genuinely impressed by the ‘unbelievable’ players within the squad.
He stated: “I know him as we’ve played against each other three or four times, and he’s a big coach, he has a big mentality.
“He told me about him joining Wolverhampton and Wolverhampton having a big project and I took to the project, I believe in it a lot, and I believe in him. I also believe in the players, and I believe in the club.
“The situation I’ve come into is not the best one. We need to take a little bit more points. But I believe in the club, I believe a lot in the coach, the mentality he has and he has many things to do here in Wolverhampton with the players, but the quality of the players is unbelievable.
“He’s a great person also, and I think everything together, we will put Wolverhampton where Wolverhampton needs to be.”
TIF Thoughts on Cunha’s comments…
We believe that Lopetegui’s impressive CV is already making an impact at Wolves, as having him at the helm clearly played a part in Cunha making the move to the Black Country.
The Spaniard has managed the likes of Real Madrid, Porto and Sevilla, while he also won the Europa League in the 2019/20 campaign when he was in charge of the latter.
When playing in the Spanish capital, Cunha had a difficult time with Atletico Madrid, only scoring seven goals in 58 matches across all competitions.
However, he is a player with a lot of potential, as shown when playing for Hertha Berlin, where he picked up 12 goal contributions in 27 Bundesliga games in the 2020/21 season.
So clearly, Lopetegui sees something in the player. He’s only 23 years old, which means he has time to develop and improve his game.
It could be a case of having the right manager to unlock Cunha’s talents, and Wolves certainly need a goalscorer. The club find themselves in a relegation battle and scoring goals has been a real issue, as they enter the Boxing Day programme as the lowest-scoring side in the league.