Wolves striker Matheus Cunha delivered some home truths at the expense of Manchester United on Boxing Day.
Five defeats in December made it far from being a merry festive period for Manchester United fans. The latest came at Molineux, where United lost 2-0 against Wolves, with one of the goals freakishly coming directly from a corner kick.
Cunha was Wolves’ star player throughout the game. The Brazilian’s second half effort from the corner flag went in over Andre Onana’s head. It was the second time in a week that United conceded directly from a corner kick after Altay Bayindir’s blunder against Tottenham Hotspur in the Carabao Cup.
To make matters worse, United were down to 10 men after Bruno Fernandes was dismissed for two bookable offences. The defeat was set in stone after Hee-Chan Hwang’s 99th-minute winner.
The win moves Wolves out of the relegation zone and pushes United further away from where they need to be in the Premier League.
Matheus Cunha intended to exploit Manchester United weakness
It says a lot when the opposition is trying to score directly from corner kicks.
Little did Amorim think Bayindir’s mistake in the cup would be repeated again by Onana, but the Cameroon international was the one at fault on Thursday evening.
Cunha scored a 58th-minute Olimpico goal to leave Onana stunned as United conceded their 18th goal from set-pieces in 2024.
Speaking after the game, Cunha revealed his plan to beat Onana just before the hour mark, citing his training methods.
“I was shooting,” said Cunha during Amazon Prime’s live broadcast. “We train to shoot! The second one I had this luck and scored the goal!”
It was embarrassing for Onana like it would be for any goalkeeper in the world to concede directly from a corner kick. There’s a reason it doesn’t happen very often in football but United have been on the receiving end of two in the past week.
We can safely assume that only teams and players are going to take note in an attempt to exploit United moving forward, but the stats tell us they’ve all been doing that already.
Andre Onana needs to take responsibility
Ruben Amorim jumped to Onana’s defence after the match at Molineux.
The United head coach is bound to rally his troops after a defeat like that, but our first-choice goalkeeper needs to do a lot better in those situations.
Amorim argued that Onana had been sandwiched by two members of the opposition. That said, nothing stopped him from punching his way through like a keeper should to protect his goal.
To his credit, Onana is usually the first player to stand up and accept a mistake when he makes one. He’s made quite a few errors of late despite several strong individual performances at the start of the campaign.
Now is not the time for mistakes as United sit 14th in the league table.
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