The Portuguese signed a three-and-a-half year deal last week and has already seen his struggling side lose twice since arriving.
He was in the stand at Ashton Gate for last weekend’s 3-0 mauling by Bristol City and in the dug-out for the first time to see Derby make it six wins in seven on Tuesday night with a 2-1 victory which was far more comfortable than the scoreline suggests.
At least he got to witness his first Swansea goal in the 90th minute.
But Ethan Galbraith’s second of the season from just outside the penalty area was far too little too late for a Swansea side that looked low of confidence, lost out on almost every second ball, and gave the ball away far too cheaply and far too often.
The Swans are in 20th position – just four points above the drop zone – and whether he likes it or not, Matos has walked into a Championship relegation battle.
His solution to the current problems – they have one win in the last 10 games in all competitions – is pretty simple. Train hard.
“The result wasn’t good. There were some good moments in the first half that we can build on – we now have a starting point,” said Matos.
“We need to improve a lot of things – the way we finish out attacks, creating more chances, getting a more aggressive counter press.
“We needed more energy coming from the second line and more bodies in and around the box. A few things were good but we need to find more consistency and keep going.
“We need to go into our next game and play it as if it’s like a final. Training is the best way to improve and we must train hard.
“This isn’t where we want to be in the table, but it’s the position we are in at the moment. We need to improve, and we are all working hard to improve the team and change the momentum.
“We need to be able to compete and compete against every style in the league. We had more possession and were the more dominant team with the ball, but we need to create more chances.
“We had two or three clear chances to score, and we need to be much more effective in our finishing. We need much more movement and be quicker in the way we move the ball.”
The fans continued to show their discontent with recent results by booing their side at the end of the game. Matos has sympathy with them.
“Every football fan in the world wants their team to win and to improve. If there were boos, the fans need to know that we will try our best to improve - that’s the promise I can make,” he added.
The Rams, pipped 3-2 by Watford last weekend to end their five match winning streak, had goals in each half from Joe Ward and Lars-Jorgen Salvesen to get John Eustace’s men back to winning ways and rocket them up to seventh in the table.
The Swans stayed in 20th and have two massive home games coming up after this weekend’s trip to West Brom against teams around them in the bottom six places - Oxford United and then Portsmouth.
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Matos made four changes from the side that was beaten in Bristol on Saturday and gave veteran midfielder Josh Tymon only his second start of the season to reach 300 games for the club.
They looked the most likely team to score in the first half, but then fell behind to Ward’s goal in the 35th minute.
A wicked cross from the left by Callum Elder, in oceans of space, missed everyone in the centre of the goal, but Ward was there at the far post to head down and past Lawrence Vigouroux to open the scoring.
That filled Derby with hope and confidence, and they powered forward in the second half, regularly hitting Swansea on the counterattack.
Then, in the 53rd minute, Salvesen was presented with a gift 14 yards out after home skipper Ben Cabango failed to clear a cross.
In trying to cut out Ward’s cross on the penalty spot, the Swans skipper merely killed it stone dead and gave Salvesen the chance to pick his spot and fire into the top left corner past a helpless Vigouroux to double the lead.
Cabango could and should have scored with his head from a free kick but merely put the ball into the keepers’ arms.
Then, Galbraith took the ball down just outside the area before smashing it past Jacob Zetterstrom to provide one glimmer of hope for Matos in his first week in his new job.
