SWANS: ‘He’s ready to play’ — Matos on what Eustáquio brings to Swansea

Vitor Matos says Stephen Eustáquio is ready to play, days after the Canada international arrived at Swansea City from Porto.

“He’s fit, he was quite good physically, so yeah, he’s ready to play,” the head coach said, with Swansea at Derby County on Saturday.

“I like it a lot. Stephen brings experience, brings leadership and another player to come to help us and to make the team stronger. I’m really pleased that he’s here with us.”

What he offers, Matos said, is a different route into the final third.

“He offers a lot in terms of playmaking, I would say. He knows how to build, and allows us to have another player in that part of the game,” he said.

“I think we need that. That allows us to have more progression in different ways to the last third.

“He offers aggressiveness and understands the game, and understands that every game has a different story, so we can bring that to the team.”

Eustáquio arrives in the role vacated by Ethan Galbraith, sold to Stoke City in an eight-figure deal at the end of June, though the head coach was wary of drawing the comparison too tightly.

“It’s always hard to compare players, but they step on the same stones on the pitch, let’s say like that. You look at his career, his CV, he’s come from a huge club in Porto,” Matos said.

The signing, he said, is as much about what the club is trying to build as about the player.

“I think it starts from the project. What we’ve tried in the transfer window is to find players that are ready to help the team and the club in the short term, but as well in the long term,” he said.

“Stephen has a brilliant CV and a brilliant past in terms of professional football. That’s one of the reasons we looked at him as well, because he can bring different experience from different competitions to the squad.

“He also is someone that is humble enough to understand that each team is different and that each player needs to have an impact.”

That a player with Champions League and Club World Cup football behind him has chosen the Championship is, in Matos’ view, a marker of where Swansea are heading.

“It shows that we are doing the right steps, and that steps need to be done at the right speed. That’s what we are trying,” he said.

“Part of that is to build the project, sell the project and give everyone a feeling that we are improving.”

The 46-game grind of the Championship is often held up as a shock for players arriving from abroad. Matos does not expect it to trouble him.

“I think that the number of games is not a problem, because he has the same amount of games when he plays a league, a Champions League or a European competition,” he said.

“Each league has their own specificities. The Championship is one that is really special regarding that and he knows that as well, but I believe with his experience and his way of understanding the game he will quite quickly understand that it’s special and that he needs to cope with different things.”

Eustáquio is one of two arrivals on Wednesday, along with Sunderland defender Jenson Seelt on loan, and Matos indicated the club is not finished.

“The market is still open. If there’s players who can help us get better, we will do it. Let’s see,” he said.

“We are looking. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to find the profiled one, doesn’t mean that will happen, but if there’s a player that will make us better we will definitely try, and that’s what we have been trying to do.”

The transfer window closes on Tuesday.