Swansea told to 'squeeze everything' out of season

Swansea City boss Vitor Matos says motivation will not be a problem for his mid-table side after urging players to "squeeze everything" out of their season.

Matos was appointed in November amid fears of the Welsh club being dragged into a Championship relegation fight.

The Swans' subsequent form under the ex-Liverpool coach then sparked talk of a push for the play-offs.

In reality, the ten point gap from the bottom and the ten-team traffic to the top six suggests mid-table is most likely – but Matos says players still have plenty to play for.

"The motivation comes from the process and being willing to improve," said the 37-year-old.

"We need to look to ourselves as a team and as individuals. We need to squeeze everything you can from their careers and everything from this season.

"When you do that, we can look back and see what we can do better – but the most important feeling is to put everything out there."

Swansea's defeat at play-off chasing Derby County last weekend underlined the work still to do for Matos, who succeeded Alan Sheehan at the Swansea.Com Stadium.

Rams boss John Eustace paid tribute to Matos' impact by saying the side carried the same stylish hallmarks of previous Swansea teams.

The Swans boss admitted the praise was "good for the ego" but it was more important that his side now build from that to winning games, starting with the visit of another play-off chaser in Bristol City, five points better off than the 16th-placed Swans.

He said: "It's a really hard season where everything is quite tight so you need to have the right mindset to understand that there are still a lot of games to come, still a lot of things to fight for and the most important one is the one that comes next against Bristol.

"There is a lot more to squeeze – and we need to keep trying everything in terms of mentality and energy. Not because we have to, but because we can."