Vitor Matos interview: Swansea City boss on their fast start and working under Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool | Football News

It is Swansea City who sit top of the Championship after eight games. Not something many would have expected at the start of the season.

But Vitor Matos and his high-pressing, energetic side have enjoyed a wonderful opening to the campaign. It is performances, more than results, that have pleased him.

“I’m happy with the start more than the results,” Matos – who won Sky Bet Championship Manager of the Month for August – tells Sky Sports.

“It’s the style and the feeling that when you go to watch us play, you have a good feeling. We are happy when you are out, especially our fans. That’s what we wanted, that’s what we are trying more than anything.

“So far, it’s been good.”

Nearly a year since taking the job, and it is clear that Matos has taken to Swansea, and the locals in the city have taken to him. ‘The Swansea way’ brings connection.

“It’s a wonderful place,” he says. “It’s a strong culture of style as well. That was one of the main reasons I decided to come and one of the main reasons we all felt close to each other.

“We and the owners wanted to bring back and put the team closer to the style it was always recognised for, an offensive one, with the ball, trying to be dominant and aggressive, but at the same time able to compete against every team.

“That is the main part, and having that already as a culture is really good because you can easily connect with each other.

“It’s a wonderful place to be. It’s a club that you always recognise as a club with a clear identity, with a clear style, which brought the fans together and brought a lot of people together. Being part of that, of course, makes me really proud.”

We have seen good starts fall away many a time in the Championship as the hectic nature of the schedule takes its toll.

Matos knows the challenge is maintaining what Swansea do over 46 games.

“It comes a lot with the mindset and the willingness,” he says. “When it’s part of you, when it’s part of your style, when you understand the benefits of that, it’s not just because we think it’s nice. It’s because we really believe it’s the best way to win and to compete against all the teams.

“When you start believing in that and make it a proper style and culture of being in the club, then it’s possible.

“Of course, it’s hard. Of course, you have different oppositions who demand different things sometimes, but the core ideas, the main principles, they need to be there. That’s what we try.”

It is some of those ideas and principles that were developed by Matos during his time at Liverpool.

He spent five years working under Jurgen Klopp as an elite development coach.

“I was lucky to work with Jurgen for that long,” Matos says. “Of course, not only Jurgen, but all the staff at Liverpool. Pep Lijnders and Peter Krawietz, too.

“It shaped me because the opportunity to work with that level of players at a really young age as well, being exposed to the Premier League, the Champions League and the training sessions, the level was so high and so demanding that, of course, it shapes you.

“I learned a lot and I still learn a lot, and that was, of course, one of the main things in my development.

“We had some players on loan in the Championship, and for that I needed to watch them and know them. If I compare, the level has increased in all directions, technically and tactically. The games are much more played in different ways.

Klopp, now in charge of the German national team, is still always available on the end of the phone.

“I have a lot more questions for Jurgen than he has for me!” Matos says with a smile.

“But it’s always nice to speak with all of them. We have a really close relationship – it was much more than football and [all the staff at Liverpool] are still close.”

Matos left Liverpool in 2024 to join Lijnders as his assistant at RB Salzburg in Germany. That only lasted a few months before Matos returned home to Portugual for his first senior management role, when he took charge at Maritimo last June.

That lasted just five months, when Swansea came calling last November, and he found himself back in English football – albeit in the Welsh part!

“I always had that desire [to return],” he says. “I never really thought about the when or the timing.

“When I grew as a child, all my development as well, I was always so much into the league, into English football, so I always had that inside me. Of course, after working at Liverpool, even more.

“I could not say that I expected one day, or that it was always in my mind that I wanted to be here in one month or in one year. But it was always there.

“When the opportunity came and when the common ideas and the common values clicked with each other, mine, the club’s, the owner’s, everything clicked. After that, it was quite an easy decision for me.”

For such a young manager, Matos speaks with incredible experience. It likely comes from the fact he knew he wanted to be a coach from the age of 15, and has been working at it ever since.

He insists, however, that he doesn’t really ever consider how far he’s come.

“I really don’t think about it on a daily basis,” he says. “We live more for the next game, the next training session, the next drill or the next interview. I think that’s where we all are as managers.

“I know I’m a young coach and there’s still, of course, a lot to live. I’m really happy with all the things that have happened. You always need a little bit of luck in your career, a little bit of luck in your life.

“Arriving healthy at this age, being able to have a family and having the possibility to do a job in this club that I like so much, all of that came into place. I’m more than anything pleased with the journey so far.”

And Swansea City are more than pleased with him.