Paul Scholes Urges Carrick to Address Matheus Cunha’s No 9 Struggles

Michael Carrick walked out of the Hill Dickinson Stadium with a point and a problem. Paul Scholes believes the biggest one is wearing the No 9 shirt without ever really looking like a centre forward.

United’s goalless draw with Everton on Sunday was flat, disjointed and, at times, desperate. Several players dipped below the required level. Matheus Cunha sank furthest.

His afternoon was a mess of overhit passes, heavy touches and runs that never quite matched what his teammates were trying to do. When chances did come, he wasted them. It wasn’t one mistake, it was a stream of them. A performance that felt like a catalogue of everything that can go wrong for a forward.

The bigger issue? No one seems sure what Cunha is in this United side anymore.

A role that keeps shifting

Last season, Carrick found a home for him. Mostly off the left, drifting inside, linking play, attacking the box late. He looked alive there, full of ideas and confidence in his first campaign at Old Trafford.

That picture has blurred.

Marcus Rashford’s return has pushed Cunha away from that left channel. Carrick clearly wants Rashford wide, where he can run at full-backs and attack space. So Cunha has been shunted into the middle, asked to lead the line, often in a false nine role.

Sometimes he starts as the nominal striker and drops into the 10. Sometimes Bruno Fernandes steps up and Cunha slides deeper. The pieces keep moving. The clarity doesn’t.

The Brazilian now looks like a player caught between jobs. Not quite a 10, not really a winger, and, to Scholes’ eye, nowhere near a natural No 9.

Scholes: ‘I don’t really know what Cunha is’

Speaking on The Good, The Bad and The Football podcast, the former United midfielder didn’t hide his frustration.

"It's very difficult to watch a Man United team without a centre forward," Scholes said.

"Now, what Cunha is, I don't really know what Cunha is, what is he a number 10 or a wide player.

"But he's definitely not a number nine. And watching the United team without a number nine, it's a struggle."

On Sunday, it looked exactly that. United had the ball, they had territory, but they rarely had a focal point. Crosses flashed across the box with no one attacking them. Midfielders lifted their heads and saw movement, but not the kind that pins centre-backs or threatens to burst in behind.

Cunha drifted, dropped off, tried to link play. What he didn’t do was look like the ruthless presence Scholes and United supporters still instinctively expect in that position.

Sesko shows the contrast

Then Benjamin Sesko came on.

The Slovenian’s introduction changed the feel of United’s attack almost instantly. He played like a centre forward. He occupied defenders, made direct runs, and when the chance arrived, he took it.

Rising highest to meet a superb Luke Shaw cross, Sesko powered his header into the net and briefly restored United’s lead. It was simple, traditional centre-forward play – the kind Scholes had just been lamenting the absence of.

United couldn’t see it out. Deep into stoppage time, Ainsley Maitland-Niles produced a stunning strike to crush the travelling fans and deny Carrick’s side all three points.

The late equaliser only sharpened the focus on what had gone before. With a true No 9 on the pitch, United had looked more coherent, more threatening. Before that, they had looked like a team trying to improvise a striker.

Carrick’s looming selection call

Cunha’s situation is not beyond repair. It is still early in the season, and he may yet be short of full sharpness. His first year at Old Trafford showed he can be inventive, dangerous and decisive when he feels at home in a role.

Right now, he doesn’t. He looks stripped of that easy confidence, second-guessing his runs and his positioning. For a forward, that split-second doubt is fatal.

Scholes believes Carrick now faces a clear dilemma: persist with a system that leaves United without a natural No 9, or lean into what Sesko offers and reshape the attack around a more orthodox focal point.

The answer may come quickly. United open their Champions League campaign against Sabah on Thursday. Carrick’s team sheet will say plenty about how he plans to solve the Cunha conundrum – and who he truly trusts to lead his line on Europe’s biggest stage.