Settled Wolves side offers a glimpse of a happy post-Cunha future

New York Times

14-04-2025

No doubt Vitor Pereira answered the calls of Wolverhampton Wanderers supporters last night and got the drinks in to celebrate another big step towards Premier League safety.
And why not? The last time Wolves achieved what they managed yesterday, their current head coach would have been sitting outside the taberna in his hometown of Espinho with the Portuguese equivalent of a bag of crisps and a bottle of Vimto.
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Pereira was three years old when Wolves last recorded four successive victories in the top flight, back in January 1972. They matched that run yesterday by beating Tottenham Hotspur 4-2 in a breathless encounter.
Even Nuno Espirito Santo did not muster as concentrated a run of Premier League victories as his countryman, who has managed it thanks to another Wolves rarity, with the club naming an unchanged starting line-up for five successive games for the first time in more than five years.
If the 56-year-old's success in saving Wolves from the threat of relegation — safety could be confirmed mathematically as early as next weekend — can be attributed to one thing above all others, it is the consistency he has brought to the team.
By the end of a reign that had brought its own high points but which unravelled spectacularly in its final months, Gary O'Neil appeared to be making changes for their own sake, trying out endless combinations, tactics and plans in a desperate effort to escape the sporting death spiral that was dragging his side towards the Championship.
Pereira, who was a surprise choice to replace O'Neil when Wolves' patience finally snapped in December, has been the coaching antidote to the overcomplication that blighted the sad, final weeks of O'Neil at Molineux.
Even before this sequence of unchanged personnel — which is unmatched since a run of five games under Nuno in December 2019 — Pereira had brought a level of tactical and emotional consistency that was missing during the dying days of O'Neil's reign.
Since Pereira arrived to take charge with his side stuck in the bottom three, Wolves have played a consistent system with players in consistent roles, which they now understand instinctively.
And the four-game winning run, which has formed part of a five-game unbeaten sequence, offers an encouraging glimpse of what life might be like next season without Matheus Cunha.
The Brazil international is never far from the thoughts of Wolves fans, and just in case they were in danger of not discussing him in the build-up to yesterday's win, he sent out a cryptic social media post, which he deleted but not before it put him back at the centre of attention.
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If that was the intention, it worked perfectly. If it was not, then it was pretty careless. And his angry Instagram reaction to fans' social media accounts picking up on his words spoke of a man who cannot live with the attention but cannot live without it.
'He is a special player,' said Pereira in his post-match press conference. 'But like everybody, like me, he needs the energy of love. He needs to feel he is important, that the people recognise his work for the team.' Which felt like a polite way of saying the same thing.
Cunha's response to being left on the bench after a four-game suspension was creditable.
He played as a second-half substitute, worked hard, scored with a fine finish at a time when Wolves needed a goal to steady their nerves, and then largely took a backseat in the post-match celebrations, even pushing goalscoring hero Jorgen Strand Larsen towards the South Bank at Molineux to take the acclaim.
As for Larsen, he has been the biggest individual beneficiary of Cunha's absence and Pereira's consistent selections, becoming the first Wolves player since Henri Camara 21 years ago to net in four consecutive Premier League games.
As the attacking focal point of a Cunha-less line-up, the Norwegian has found form in a team geared up to play to his strengths.
And if the Brazilian is gone next season — as is widely expected and as Pereira appears to want to remove any distractions — there is clear encouragement that the team can function well as an attacking unit without him.
The summer remains huge for Pereira and Wolves, with a host of fellow attackers likely to join Cunha and captain Nelson Semedo out of the door. But after five games in which their attacking talisman played just 20 minutes and Wolves collected 13 points, the prospect of managing without him looks a good deal less daunting than it did a month ago.
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Fifty-three years ago – when Pereira was three years old, none of his current players were born, Instagram had not been conceived, and another centre-forward who combined the stature of Strand Larsen with some of the temperament of Cunha was leading the line for Wolves – was when they last won four games in a row at the top level.
Derek Dougan scored 24 goals that season as Wolves finished ninth in the First Division and reached their only European final.
They lost that game 2-1 to Tottenham. Yesterday's victory will have a much smaller place in Wolves history, but it offered more moments of hope to a coach whose consistency has changed the mood at Molineux.