3 dribbles, 9 duels won, fouled 5 times: United warrior made Forest lives a misery in 2-2 draw

Manchester United bounced back from a blown lead to draw with Nottingham Forest. An impressive Casemiro headed the Red Devils into the lead from a corner, but an ascendent Forest gave it both barrels after the restart and scored twice in a minute to seize the lead. United battled hard and equalised through Amad, but couldn’t find a winner and had to settle for a point. Public enemy number one Matheus Cunha wasn’t able to build on his goal against Brighton and Hove Albion last week, but despite not boosting his figures he was a key man for United. Competing in an increasingly raucous City Ground, Cunha was the most fouled man on the pitch – much to the displeasure of the home support, who felt he was being dramatic. The Brazilian was brought down five times, but also beat his man more times that anyone else, winning three out of his five attempted dribbles. He was as combative as ever, winning nine of his 14 attempted ground duels – no player on either side attempted or won more – and two of his three attempted aerial duels. Good on the ball Cunha may not have got an assist, but no player made more than his four key passes as he contributed heavily to his side’s attacks. The 26-year-old was pinpoint accurate with most of his passing, too, finding his man with all four of his attempted long balls. Overall, he recorded an impressive 91% passing accuracy having made 32 successful passes. He managed to get one shot on target, and also chipped in defensively – he made four clearances, bettered only by the immense Matthijs de Ligt, and contributed one tackle and one interception to frustrate the home side. Matheus Cunha v Nottingham Forest PlayerMatheus Cunha Minutes played90′ Goals0 Expected goals (xG)0.06 Assists0 Expected assists (xA)0.05 Total shots2 Shots on target1 Shots blocked1 Touches69 Unsuccessful touches6 Dribbles (successful)5 (3) Was fouled5 Possession lost14 Key passes4 Crosses (accurate)0 (0) Accurate passes32/35 (91%) Passes in opposition half (acc.)23/26 (88%) Passes in own half (acc.)9/9 (100%) Long balls (accurate)4/4 (100%) Tackles (won)1 (1) Interceptions1 Clearances4 Blocked shots0 Recoveries7 Ground duels (won)14 (9) Aerial duels (won)3 (2) Fouls1 Dribbled past— Stats taken from sofascore. Featured image Michael Regan via Getty Images The Peoples Person has been one of the world’s leading Man United news sites for over a decade. Follow us on Bluesky: @peoplesperson.bsky.social Joe Ponting Joe has spent more than half his life writing about football and all of it following United. As a child he told a doctor his name was ‘Paul Scholes’, but could never pick a pass like him no matter how much he tried. He cut his teeth working in print media for local newspapers and entered football journalism covering the grassroots game for the Non-League Paper. Here he achieved a career high, interviewing United legend Sir Bobby Charlton to get his views on the lower echelons of the football pyramid. To kill time during international breaks Joe writes album reviews and has strong views on post punk for Plus One Magazine.