Matos on tactics, Klopp’s influence and guiding Swansea to the league summit
When Vitor Matos was appointed manager of Swansea in November 2025, many feared a relegation battle. Almost a year later, the Swans sit atop the Championship ten games into the season. In hindsight, the appointment looks like a masterstroke, especially given that Matos had overseen only twelve senior matches before arriving at Swansea – all in Portugal’s second tier.
Those twelve games mask a 23‑year coaching odyssey that has taken him across several continents and through a variety of roles. Before his stint at Marítimo, the 38‑year‑old spent five years at Liverpool as an elite development coach under Jürgen Klopp, then moved to Red Bull Salzburg to serve as Pep Lijnders’ assistant.
I spoke with the Portuguese manager to learn about his influences, guiding principles and how he navigates today’s ever‑shifting tactical landscape.
“Liverpool influenced me a lot in terms of counter‑pressing, pressing, intensity, and what makes you grow as a team,” Matos said. “The most important thing is how much you believe in your idea and this style is how I see football. That’s why I wanted this to be the foundation for our team.”
He added that it would be wrong to label him solely as a Klopp disciple. “I started at a very young age wanting to be a coach and was influenced by many different styles,” he explained.
Those varied influences are evident in Swansea’s current game model, which blends ideas from his time at FC Porto, Shandong Taishan and Liverpool.
When Matos replaced Alan Sheehan at Swansea, his first priority was restoring confidence. “The most important thing was to make the team feel confident again, to make the players fall in love with playing with each other,” he said. “For that, we wanted to take steps first on making the team much more aggressive without the ball. Giving them that boost of confidence by demanding a more aggressive game, creating a good feeling after a high regain or a wonderful tackle – it creates a better mood inside the group.”
He also decided to settle on a back four. “Before I arrived there was some change between a back four and a back five. I thought the squad was built for a back four at that time and to give consistency to the players, sticking with that was another priority,” he noted. “So, in our 4‑3‑5, we had a clear idea – to become a pressing and counter‑pressing team, brave enough to take that risk. But then it’s about trying to find out the ways to be more aggressive.”
Matos stressed that his fixed footballing principles must be adapted to the players at his disposal. He takes a holistic view of each individual, seeking to understand them both as footballers and as people before deciding how they fit into his system.
“We want to press but where will we set up in terms of starting positions? Who should start the press? Which are the triggers? Who are the players who buy in more or are more ready for this type of style in a short period of time?” he said. “When you start from the players you have in front of you, you start from a position of comfort for them. This allows the players to be more confident which helps you to build your idea over time.”
Matos’ time with FC Porto’s youth set the foundation for his understanding of positional play. “We used a very positional 4‑3‑5, understanding the spaces, the timings, waiting for the ball to arrive to you at the right time. Players moved the ball until gaps started opening,” he explained. Those principles have become the basis of an impressive Swansea side this season.
“How we solve problems depends on if we play against a man‑marking team or a complete zonal team,” Matos said. “When you play against a complete zonal team, the most important thing is that you understand that you need to move them. By moving the opposition, you create spaces, you create a free player.” Historically, positional play has relied on finding that free, unmarked attacker. Against zonal defenses, an attacker can slip into a gap and force a defender to leave another attacker uncovered.
The rise of man‑to‑man pressure, however, presents a different challenge because individual marking can eliminate the free player. To address this, Matos drew on lessons from his time in China. “In China, I understood that to arrive at a more positional game, you could have different steps beforehand,” he said. “There is a benefit to having more players close to each other, rather than spreading them over space.” By clustering players, he can create the quick, short‑passing sequences needed to break down tightly marked defenses.
Matos’ blend of Klopp‑inspired intensity, Porto‑style positional awareness and insights from his Chinese experience has turned Swansea into a side that not only presses aggressively but also adapts its shape to the opposition. Ten games into the campaign, the Swans have won seven, and their rise under Matos continues to capture the imagination of a fanbase that once feared the drop.