Manchester United fans singled out summer signing Matheus Cunha after the Red Devils’ Premier League Summer Series clash against Everton on Sunday evening.
The Red Devils travelled to Georgia and played their final match of the pre-season summer tour in the United States at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Manchester United opened the scoring against Everton in the first half after Amad Diallo won a penalty, with Everton’s James Tarkowski bringing down the winger.
Bruno Fernandes subsequently stepped up for the penalty and the 30-year-old United captain sent Everton shot-stopper Jordan Pickford the wrong way.
David Moyes’ men rallied back in the first half and Iliman Ndiaye found the equaliser for Everton in the 40th minute, with United and Everton heading into the break level.
United climbed back into the lead in the second half after Bruno Fernandes picked out Mason Mount in the box and the ex-Chelsea ace curled in a sensational strike.
Mason Mount’s effort was cancelled out after Ayden Heaven put the ball past Altay Bayindir, with United winger Amad Diallo striking the ball off of the defender.
Man Utd fans make an eye-opening assessment of Matheus Cunha’s performance vs Everton at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Manchester United and Everton’s pre-season encounter in the Premier League Summer Series concluded in a 2-2 draw, which marks the end of the tour in the US.
Matheus Cunha made his start for the Red Devils on Sunday evening and the former Wolves ace played alongside fellow summer signing Bryan Mbeumo in attack.
But United fans on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, were far from convinced with Cunha playing ‘out of his preferred position’ under Ruben Amorim.
One X user argued: “Cunha is not a [No] 9. He’s a typical second striker. Amorim should note this, the earlier the better.”
Someone else suggested: “Cunha played well, but that position is a complete waste of his talents. Mbeumo/Cunha MUST play wide [No] 10, not [as a] bloody striker.”
A third United fan wrote: “My worry is putting Cunha, Bruno [Fernandes] and Mbeumo up at the front wastes whoever plays [as] the [No] 9, hence our need for a striker.”
While a fourth Red Devils supporter tweeted: “Cunha is not a striker, let me make that clear for the [people] judging this performance.”
“We need a proper striker. Cunha or Mbeumo as strikers won’t work,” somebody else said.
And a sixth added: “Sooner we realise Cunha isn’t a striker, the better; he’s wasted up there [and] needs to be behind the striker.”
“Cunha at striker ain’t it. Get him back at L10 [left-sided No 10],” another posted.
An eighth commented: “This clearly shows that we need a striker [and] all this Cunha [and] Mbuemo as the ST won’t work out well in the long run.”
Ruben Amorim’s ‘experiment’ with Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha vs Everton left something to be desired for Man Utd
Bryan Mbeumo only played the first half on his United debut before Ruben Amorim hooked off his summer signing and replaced him with Patrick Dorgu at the break.
Cunha’s role on the pitch came to an end in the second half, with United manager Amorim subbing off the former Wolves ace in the 72nd minute for Casemiro.
Both Mbeumo and Cunha were lively in the first half for United, but the absence of an out-and-out striker on the pitch against Everton was noticeable in the 2-2 draw.
The expectation this summer had been for Cunha to play as the left-sided No 10 and for Mbeumo to play as the right-sided No 10 in Amorim’s tactical system for United.
But Cunha’s difficulty to seriously influence the play in the attack against Everton will once again reignite the talk around United’s need to sign a new striker this summer.
