Vitor Matos | We need to keep believing in the way we play

Head coach Vitor Matos insists Swansea City will travel to Queens Park Rangers with no shortage of motivation as they look to return to winning ways in the Championship on Saturday afternoon (3pm).

The Swans head to MATRADE Loftus Road looking to respond to last weekend’s narrow defeat against West Ham United, which marked their first home loss of the season and just their second defeat of the league campaign.

Matos’ side sit second in the early Championship table with 23 points from 12 games, having made a record-breaking start and continue to boast the best defensive record in the division.

And the Swans boss believes his players have responded positively on the training ground this week as they prepare for Saturday’s trip to west London.

“The training sessions have been really good and really intense,” he said.

“It was important for us because it had been a long time since we had the whole group together with time to train, because of the international break.

“It was important for us to go back to the basics and back to the important things for us to have consistency, and they did that really well.

“I think we handled it in the best way we could, which is by training hard and working hard.”

Queens Park Rangers have made a strong start to their own Championship campaign themselves and sit just outside the play-off places after picking up some key wins at home and on the road. 

Matos expects the R’s to provide a stern test for his side, with the hosts having shown their quality in both attacking and defensive phases.

“Queens Park Rangers, as we all see in terms of stats, are one of the best teams in the league offensively,” he added.

“They’re really well organised defensively. They have used two different shapes already this season, so they’re really competitive at their stadium, which is also where they are really consistent.

“We expect a good game where we need to do a lot of things right and be concentrated in every action. I think it will be a game that will need the full 90 minutes to be decided.”

Swansea have enjoyed an encouraging run of form on their travels, picking up key wins against Stoke City, Lincoln City and Millwall.

And Matos believes the players’ continued belief and commitment to their way of playing has been key to their improvement away from home this season. 

“I think, more than anything, it was the way the players kept believing in the idea, kept believing in the way we train, kept working on what we can do to improve ourselves, and understanding that each game sometimes requires different things,” he continued.

“When we agree on one of them, we are really strong. Step by step, we improved, got consistency as well, and started to get more points from away games.”