The Keen & Judah Show: How many goals will Matheus Cunha score in the 2024/25 season?
Liam Keen and Nathan Judah pick out selected Wolves players and their goal targets for the upcoming season.
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00:00Right. Okay. Interesting subject this week. Individual goal targets for Wolverhampton
00:04Wanderers players this season. So I'm going to give you a play, Liam, and then pretty
00:08self-explanatory, you're going to say what you think that player should be aiming for
00:12goals-wise this season. And I'm sure they'll be watching this as well. So they'll be very
00:16intrigued to see what target you've got for them. Are you ready? So it's not just going
00:21to be strikers. I might throw the curveball, I might have a midfielder. I even have a defender
00:25in there. You shall see in the next 20-odd minutes or so. So let's go. You ready? Let's
00:32do it. Would you like a striker, defender, or would you like a midfielder to start with?
00:37You choose. It's goals. Give me a striker to start with. Okay, we're going to go with
00:41goals. We're going to go with somebody who was top scoring last year for Wolverhampton
00:44Wanderers. Mateusz Kunia. Mateusz Kunia. Great season. Fantastic. Obviously, really
00:54disappointing after on the back of that hat-trick against Chelsea, when he was absolutely flying,
00:58that he got that injury and kept him out for several weeks. But someone who will be leading
01:02the line this... Well, I said leading the line this season, it'll be number 10. You
01:05think that Jorgen Larsen will probably be leading the line. But someone who you've got
01:10a banker for starting the majority of Premier League games this season, if... And of course,
01:15it is an if as well. I'm sure they'll work on that. He can stay fit for the majority of games.
01:19What kind of target do you think that Mateusz Kunia should be looking at in terms of Premier
01:23League goals this season? I say Premier League goals, Liam. Okay, in Premier League goals.
01:28You've thrown a curveball to me there because I've got stats in front of me for all competitions
01:33here. But I'm going to throw one from your way anyway. A player that we're both a big fan of
01:36to start with, Mateusz Kunia. I think he adds a lot to the way Wolves play. Obviously,
01:42his role may be slightly different this season, but he did play sort of off the left, almost a
01:46left 10 kind of position. From what we've seen so far in pre-season, he might be looking more
01:51of a central 10, but with a bit more freedom, freedom to roam and link up play and go and
01:56express himself a bit, which hopefully might lead to more goals. That's always going to be the
02:02target is more goals. People want more every single year. 36 games, all competitions last
02:07season for him, 14 goals, eight assists, which is a lot closer to what you want from a 43 million
02:13pound football, isn't it? Sure. And we were talking about that after the season before,
02:17after a few months from signing in January and him playing as a number nine didn't really work.
02:22We could see that. Luckily, as we say, Gary O'Neill could see that as well and agreed with us
02:27and got the best out of him. That's a credit to the player and to the manager last season.
02:33Yeah. A great, a great return on goal involvements there from 36 games.
02:38And I think you have to say, I think if we're going to say all competitions,
02:42the next target is 20 goals. And he only scored a couple of cup goals last season.
02:49So that probably looks at 17, 18 Premier League goals up from about 12. Was it in the Premier
02:55League last season? That's I think a realistic target, but he then becomes one of the best
03:02forwards in the Premier League. And that's a massive ask as well. So his goal involvements
03:08is probably going to depend a lot on what his role is and whether he can find enough space.
03:12But remember last season, he was being almost coached in the early parts of the season by
03:17Gary O'Neill about arriving at that far post arriving in the box. Once he started to do it,
03:22chances started to come his way. Goals started to come his way. If he arrives in these similar
03:26areas next season, particularly with someone like a Strand Larsen occupying centre halves,
03:33he could find an incredible amount of space in the six yard box. And if he does,
03:37that's where his bread and butter will be and he'll pick up goals. So I think it could be,
03:42provided he can build off it, a really exciting season for Mateus Kunja.
03:47That's the best point you made in probably a couple of years, Liam. I've got to be honest.
03:50It just doesn't take a lot, but Mateus Kunja has been desperate to have a quality number nine
03:58playing with him because he is better in that midfield to forward range, moving, finding those
04:03spaces, you know, not just keeping to that left hand side, but you kind of go across to the right,
04:07make those runs in front of the striker. But he hasn't had that really, has he? You know,
04:12no disrespect, but players in the past, it hasn't really worked for them, whether that's,
04:16you know, Fabio Silva or Sascha Kalaidzic or even Hwang Hee Chan. If you've got someone who,
04:21you know, you can run off, you're playing with every single week and you know where they're
04:24going to be, you know, the little moves are going to be back to goal, you know where they're going
04:27to be, you know where they're flicking the ball onto. That's massive, massive for Mateus Kunja.
04:32And, you know, the goals will come, but also the assist, you talk about the assist there as well.
04:37Massively important in terms of being a provider as well. And I thought that maybe shocked us a
04:42little bit last season, the amount of assists that you had done. If he can get the same number or more
04:47going into next season, that'll be huge for Wolves. Yeah, absolutely. I think it's important
04:51to mention the assist because obviously he's going to get credit for the goals. And sometimes
04:56the player like him who did score so many goals last season, the assist flies under the radar a
05:01little bit. As I say, eight assists in all competitions is a great return from a player who
05:07his sole focus is to score. Now his sole focus may not be necessarily that playing as a 10,
05:12if that is where he will be going into the Premier League season, but we'll see hopefully a player
05:17that is going to just find acres of space. And once you do, he can pick a pass. We've seen him
05:23run with the ball and take players on. His dribbling ability and his stats for dribbling
05:26was one of the best in the Premier League last season. I think you could really find a position
05:33that suits him even more than he did last season. And that could be scary for the opposition really,
05:37considering the numbers he did pick up last year.