SWANS: Matos ‘really, really proud’ after West Ham defeat, but wants more sharpness and conviction in attack

Vitor Matos says he is “really, really proud” of his Swansea side after their 1-0 defeat to West Ham, but wants more “sharpness and conviction” in front of goal.

Divine Mukasa’s first-half goal ended the Swans’ unbeaten home league record, though they stay top of the Championship by a point.

“I’m really proud of the boys. I think they put so much effort, put so much demanding on themselves and so much sweat for the shirt that I’m really, really proud of them,” Matos said.

“I think we can compete against every team and that’s what we need to do. We need to keep pushing ourselves to beat the best teams of the league.”

‘Sharpness and conviction’ missing against West Ham’s back four

Matos says his side found it hard to get through West Ham’s defence. “They are really good and organised, especially the back four. It’s so hard to break them, so hard to find the right spaces as well there to then have the last pass,” he said.

“We had situations of that, just needed a little bit of sharpness and conviction. That is something that we can improve, something that we are here to do.”

“I think we had moments where we really pushed them back, we really moved them on the right moments, really pressed quite well as well.”

A game ‘decided in the boxes’

“A really tight game, decided in the boxes I would say. West Ham scored,” Matos said. “We still did that. Had some chances, two from set-pieces, didn’t score and that’s the story of the game I would say.”

Captain Ben Cabango hit the underside of the bar in the first half and dragged a shot wide after the break, both from set pieces.

“No one is happy when you don’t score on a chance, but he was there to create them as well, so it’s what it is,” Matos said.

“In other games, we had that little start that gave us the goal. Today, we hadn’t. I would be much more concerned if we didn’t create those chances.”

“On these tight games, small things can make a difference. Unfortunately for us, we didn’t score. What we can do now is analyse and try to improve.”

‘That frustration should stay’

Asked whether staying top mattered for morale, Matos said the most important thing was that his players felt they could have taken something from the game.

“We played against a really good opposition, that is a team that of course is one of the main contenders to go to the Premier League, and we felt that we can compete and we can beat them as well,” he said.

“That frustration, that’s something that should stay, but that’s something that more than anything should give us the fuel to push ourselves on training, push our standards and keep improving ourselves.”

A full week to train before QPR

Matos says a full week on the training ground will help. “We have now, finally, after the international break have a week to train and that will be quite important for us.”

“West Ham is one of the best teams, we tried, unfortunately, we could not get something out of the game and that’s the story.”

Swansea go to eighth-placed Queens Park Rangers on Saturday, 24 October (3pm). Before the game, Matos had warned that “10 games is 10 games”.