Scouting Report: Matheus Cunha

Matheus Cunha is a name that’s been on a few lists since joining Hertha Berlin in January.

The Brazilian attacker has been playing in Germany, originally making a name for himself at Red Bull, however - he was down the pecking order a little.

These days, he’s Hertha’s main man.

In this article, we’ll look at Cunha as a prospect, and take a look at his playing style.

Player Profile

Name: Matheus Cunha
Position: Attacker (basically LW, CAM, SS)
Age: 21 (1999)
Nationality: Brazil
Club: Hertha Berlin
Debut Cards: 2019/20 Season

About Matheus Cunha

As you can probably tell by the fact I just had to list his position as “attacker”, Matheus Cunha is an incredibly versatile player that has the ability to play in a range of attacking positions.

This becomes pretty obvious when you see his career heat map.

As you can see, he’s used in a range of spots on the field. However, here’s the heat map from this season, and you can see he’s doing a lot of damage coming in from the left.

However there is still some versatility to his positioning.

He’s the typical modern right-footer that comes in and plays on the left - offering an option to cut in, and another body in the midfield when needed.

Having said that though, some of his underlying numbers really correlate with great young second strikers. Particularly Joao Felix and Lautaro Martinez. Just check his career numbers alongside Felix.

As you can see, the numbers are very similar with Cunha being a bit more trigger-happy with shots.

The same goes with Martinez, but to date, Cunha is actually offering more in the buildup.

Note: I always get a few questions about xG Buildup and xG Chain with these graphs, so here’s a quick rundown.

xG Chain:

• Find all possessions each player is involved in

• Find all shots within those possessions

• Sum the xG of those shots (usually take the highest xG per possession)

• Assign that sum to each player, however involved they are

xG Buildup:

Is basically the same thing minus the shot and key pass. That gives more weight to players who aren’t directly involved in the shot, but help in the buildup.

For more info, there is a cool article on StatsBomb about it, but I think I’ve given enough to understand the basics.

Anyway, the first thing I noticed when I saw him play is how active he is around the ground for someone who scores so many goals!

Which, backs up those xG buildup numbers.

In fact, over the last calendar year, he’s one of only five prospects 23 and under in the top five Euro leagues who fit the following criteria:

• At lease five successful attacking actions ( per match

• An average of 0.4 xG per 90 minutes

And it’s a list of very good players too.

Some pretty good company…

While his key passing numbers are nothing spectacular, he does show potential with some of the balls that he plays in - especially with long-range passes that cut through an opposition. For example, here’s one against Dortmund recently.

As you can see, he recognizes the run and hits the perfect ball in. And it’s not just a fluke too, here’s another from a recent Brazil U23 match.

This is more of a through-ball than it is a long range cross, but god I love this pass.

He’s the type of player you love playing with too. You want to know that if you bust your guy making a run like that you’ll be rewarded.

So I think there’s potential for him to definitely improve his overall passing numbers.

One other thing you can tell from these two plays, along with the numbers we’ve looked at is that Cunha loves to drop in and help build up attacks.

But, with his long range passing, he’s also lethal on quick attacks. This is also aided with his dribbling ability.

Cunha averages over eight dribbles a game and success-rate of 55% on those dribbles is top-notch. There’s only 12 prospects in the top five European leagues that have those dribble numbers, and a lot of them are dribble-first guys who don’t offer too much else.

Cunha on the other hand, gives a lot more than just a dribble. Out of those dozen-or-so players, he’s comfortably got the second best goal scoring, and shooting numbers. Again, behind Mbappe. Which, shouldn’t really count because his numbers are just stupid.

His combo of pace, movement off the ball, ability to get involved with buildup when needed, long range passing, and finishing means that he’s a great player for the pace that the sport is played at these days.

The final thing I want to point out with Cunha is his willingness to help defend, and aggression at the ball - which, can lead to a lot of fouls at times.

But let’s look at all players in the top five European leagues that have similar attacking numbers to Cunha and check their defending out over the last calendar year… it’s really just Cunha and Hirving Lozano from Napoli that offer the a lot on both sides of the ball.

And if we compare Cunha’s attacking numbers to only the guys 23 and under form this list, it’s obvious that Cunha offers so much more when defending.

This ability and willingness to defend will mean that he'll be able to cut it at the very highest level. Often, unless you’re in the top couple attacking players on the planet, you’ll need to help defend… especially these days, when pressing and winning the ball back in your attacking third is key.

All in all, I think Cunha is a really promising player and is already performing at a high level in a very good league. It’s going to be interesting to see how he progresses.

What’s Next For Matheus Cunha

For Cunha, he’s got a few things that I think he needs to continue to do this season:

1. Keep performing! He hasn’t been at Hertha too long, so he still needs to prove it isn’t just a flash in the pan.

2. See what happens scoring-wise. This calendar year he has 12 goals off only an xG of 8.39. Performing at about 50% better than your xG isn’t sustainable, so we’ll see where that lands with a larger sample size

I’d like to see Cunha stay at Berlin another season at lease and cement his place and get a good run of form up before eventually moving to a bigger club.

I do think he has the potential to play at a really high level, but there’s a lot that has to happen before that.

Matheus Cunha for Collectors

Cunha doesn’t actually have too many cards or stickers out yet. He has some Match Attax from his days at RB Leipzig, and a few Topps Now cards here and there (before they put the RC on them). However, his first real stickers are from the 20/21 Bundesliga sets.

As of the time of writing, I haven’t seen the checklist for the cards this season, but I hope that he gets a good run in this years’ set.

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