SWANS: Matos wary of ‘one of the best defences in the league’ as Swansea head to Lincoln

Vitor Matos has warned that Swansea City face one of the meanest defences in the Championship when they travel to an in-form Lincoln City on Saturday.

The Swans go to Sincil Bank on the back of the win over Burnley that returned them to the automatic promotion places, but Matos is under no illusions about the challenge from a side unbeaten in five.

“Lincoln are a really good team in terms of idea, how they really want to approach games. They have a really clear one,” he said.

“They make the game really competitive. They are quite a direct team with a really strong structure to catch a lot of second balls and use that straight on.

“We know it’s one of the best defences in the league and they are in a positive moment, so we expect a good game, a game that we also want to compete in and show that we want, in our way, to go to every place and do a proper game.”

A different kind of test

The Imps began their return to the Championship with two defeats but have since gone five without loss, keeping four clean sheets and climbing to eighth after a 1-0 win at Bristol City in midweek.

Matos said adapting to that direct, physical style was exactly the sort of challenge a promotion side must master.

“All the games are different. Lincoln is different in many ways, but we’ve played against more vertical or more direct or back-five teams before,” he said.

“It’s not the first one, but, of course, different players, different personalities, so different dynamics. If you want to do well in the Championship, you have to find a way of coping with these different challenges.

“I said from the beginning, we need to be consistent in our way and able to play against every type of opponent. That’s what we’re going to try.”

The pressing game that leads the league

Swansea travel with the numbers behind their identity. Matos’ side lead the Championship this season for high turnovers, winning the ball back 65 times in advanced areas, and for turnovers that end in a shot, with 14. Only Norwich have pressed more often, the Swans’ 102 pressing sequences second only to the Canaries’ 103.

It is that relentless press Matos wants to impose at Sincil Bank, even against a team built to withstand it.

“We know that we need to do a lot of things right to be able to have success there and, at the same time, try to impose ourselves,” he said.

“It’s going to be a really hard game in a lot of ways, but something we are working on and analysing to do our best.”

Building on the Burnley win

Matos was pleased with the 3-1 defeat of Burnley but, as ever, wants more.

“I was happy with the performance against Burnley. It was a really good one in many ways. Obviously, we needed to do better,” he said.

“So now we have time to recover and to work on some aspects of our game that are quite important for the next one, Lincoln away.

“They have a really specific way of playing, really competitive in every situation. They are a team with physicality, with a proper heart and passion on the pitch, and we need to be ready for that.”

The Swans travel to Lincoln (3pm kick-off) on a strong recent run of six wins and three draws in their past 10 league games, the only defeat in that spell the 3-1 loss at Southampton that ended their unbeaten start, which also came on the road.

Author

Richard Bond

Swansea-based sports journalist.
Twitter: @RichBond00
Email: RichardBond@swanseabaynews.com