Arne Slot has described Wolves striker Matheus Cunha as a player who could “play for one of the top five teams in England,” following links with Liverpool.
Cunha is a player who has been tentatively linked with a move to Liverpool, having established himself as a standout performer for a hit-and-miss Wolves side.
The Brazilian, 25, has 11 goals and four assists in 23 games in the Premier League this season and his ability to drop deep and link play has been compared to Roberto Firmino.
While that may be a stretch, doubts over Liverpool’s current options up front and the presence of a £62.5 million release clause in his contract – active from this summer, per BBC Sport – could make Cunha an interesting target.
Asked about Wolves‘ No. 10 in his pre-match press conference on Friday, Slot named him as capable of playing for “one of the top five teams in England.”
“He’s the type of player that I’m referring to when I always say if I compare the leagues, the league where I’ve worked in and this league,” he told reporters.
“Wolves are 17th, if you go to the Dutch league and you look at the number 17, there’s no player that can play for Ajax, PSV or Feyenoord.
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“But Matheus Cunha is a quality player and he has the quality to play for one of the top five teams in England.
“That is also one of the reasons why it’s so much more difficult to win a game against the number 17 in England than to win a game against the number 17 in Holland.
“Again, we already saw him when we played against him with Gary O’Neil. They had a very good performance back then as well and him in particular.
“So we know that it’s going to be a tough game on Sunday again.”
There is no indication from Slot’s words that Cunha will be an active target heading into the summer, but he will certainly be on the radar of Liverpool’s recruitment team.
Per FBref, Cunha is in the elite percentile for passes attempted (97th), progressive passes (97th), progressive carries (95th), successful take-ons (96th), tackles (96th) and interceptions (99th) among forwards in Europe’s top five leagues.
While often playing behind the main striker for Wolves, it is notable that Cunha is in the top five percent for nine-penalty goals per 90 (0.54) among attacking midfielders over the past year too.
Liverpool are yet to tie Mohamed Salah down to a new contract as talks continue, while there are question marks over Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota and in particular Darwin Nunez heading into the summer.
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