Matos: Swansea rediscovering their trademark playing style
Swansea City head coach Vitor Matos says his side are progressing towards reviving the possession-based style that defined the club's golden era. Swansea sit top of the Championship with 10 points from four league games.
Swansea City head coach Vitor Matos believes his team are gradually rediscovering the stylish, possession-based football that once defined the club during its golden period in the Premier League.
Swansea currently top the Championship table after collecting 10 points from their opening four league matches. The Swans have lost just once in their last 11 league outings, that defeat coming against Coventry in March. Midweek brought one of the side's most memorable performances in recent years, a win over Watford, and attention now turns to Saturday's Welsh derby at home against Wrexham.
Matos said Swansea have always been associated with a distinctive style of play, one linked to the club's identity under managers such as Roberto Martinez, Brendan Rodgers and Michael Laudrup. He explained that his aim has been to move the team as close as possible to that identity, using it to build a stronger connection throughout the club.
Path to revival
Matos, who took over as head coach in November 2025, has previously said Swansea drifted from that style following Martinez's appointment as manager in 2007, when the club was still in the third tier. By 2011, Swansea had become the first Welsh club to reach the Premier League, and two years later they won the League Cup, the only major trophy in the club's history.
The club later lost its footballing identity in the top flight, a shift in style that contributed to their eventual relegation from the Premier League in 2018. Since then, a succession of head coaches have been tasked with returning Swansea to the top division while restoring the playing style that once made them known.
While Matos acknowledges it remains too early in the season to judge promotion prospects, he says something special is building within the squad that everyone connected to the club feels proud of. He added that the team must stay focused on understanding the reasons behind their results, rather than dwelling solely on recent success, given football's unpredictable nature.
