Jurgen Klopp's ex-Liverpool coach inspiring Championship team's promotion push

Swansea has scored 11 set-piece goals under Vitor Matos after scoring none before his arrival, with Zan Vipotnik's stunning free-kick against Sheffield Wednesday the latest as the Portuguese coach credits his assistants

Vitor Matos was one of Jurgen Klopp's coaches at Liverpool(Image: Getty Images)

Vitor Matos has hailed the contributions of assistant coach Diogo Medeiros and analyst Harri Mathias as instrumental in enhancing Swansea's set-piece prowess.

Matos is best known among Liverpool fans for being one of Jurgen Klopp's coaches at Anfield. He also worked alongside Pep Lijnders, another Liverpool stalwart, during their time together at RB Leipzig. Matos is now getting his chance as a manager after taking charge of Championship side Swansea earlier this season.

Upon his arrival, the Swans were the only team in the league yet to score from a set-piece. Since then, they've found the back of the net 11 times from set-pieces, with the most recent being a free-kick by Zan Vipotnik in their 4-0 thrashing of Sheffield Wednesday.

This significant improvement has undoubtedly propelled the Swans to amass 25 points from their last 13 matches, a record that sees them comfortably 10 points clear of the drop zone and just five points shy of the playoff spots.

Matos attributes this enhancement largely to training ground efforts, highlighting the influence of Medeiros, who previously worked alongside him at Maritimo, and set-piece analyst Mathias.

"It's not about changing, it's about training," he said when asked about his side's improved set-piece threat.

Matos has turned Swansea's season around(Image: Getty Images)

"It's about having ideas, and that comes from the staff as well. Diogo is someone who is responsible for that, together with the analysts. That is Harri.

"So I think that's quite good. That's been good. The improvement we made in corners. The improvement we made in wide free-kicks. The improvement we made in throw-ins as well.

"Set-pieces are always a weapon that you can use to win games. We knew that it's really important in the Championship because these games are really tight and really close, and one set-piece can make the difference in both ways.

"So yeah, it's something that we spent some time on, and that's what it is. There's nothing really special or magic about it."

Matos now potentially has a few options when it comes to free-kick takers, with top scorer Vipotnik putting his hand up with his stunning strike against the Owls, while new signing Leo Walta is also something of a set-piece specialist.

Commenting on Vipotnik's strike, Matos said: "I think it was Jay (Fulton) who incentivised him to take that free-kick.

"He trains a lot, with finishing sessions outside of the box. He does that really well, and we can all see that training in that game.

"He made that decision. It's good as well when the players have this kind of ownership because he's really close, so it's good when they have that feeling. He had that feeling, and yeah, brilliant goal."