Matheus Cunha chose to look directly at the past rather than simply glorify the present. While Manchester United enjoyed an exciting five-match unbeaten run, the Brazilian striker surprisingly singled out Ruben Amorim as a key player in their current success.

In January 2026, Amorim was fired after Manchester United won only 2 of their 7 Premier League games. Michael Carrick took over as interim manager and had an immediate positive impact.

Manchester United won four consecutive games, including impressive victories against Manchester City and Arsenal, before extending their unbeaten run to five matches.

Cunha was one of the most outstanding players during this period. He scored the decisive goal at the Emirates, helping Manchester United beat Arsenal 3-2 in a tense match. However, the Brazilian striker does not believe it was all thanks to Carrick.

"I will always be grateful for what Ruben did," Cunha told DAZN. "When things change, it's easy to look back as if everything was problems. But it wasn't like that; he was a wonderful person."

According to Cunha, many new players arrived at Old Trafford thanks to Amorim's influence. Therefore, the current success is inseparable from the previous period. This opinion contradicts much of the criticism directed at Amorim, particularly his apparent rigidity with the three-center-back system.

Cunha frankly stated that the public focuses too much on tactical formations, while in reality, Manchester United under Carrick's leadership often defended with a similar structure. The problem, according to him, does not lie in the number of three or four defenders.

"The pressure for that system to succeed was too much. We forgot how simple the big picture was and focused only on the negative," Cunha added. "Numbers in football are sometimes very misleading. We attacked in many different ways and then defended according to what everyone called Ruben's system."

Amorim left discreetly and received a £12 million contract termination payment. After a period out of the public eye, he recently made a surprise visit to Doha and watched Carlos Alcaraz's match at the Qatar Open.

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