dpSwansea City kick off the new season against Birmingham City on Saturday (15:00 BST) with Vitor Matos believing it will take time for his team to hit top gear.
Swansea could include five summer recruits in their squad to take on Birmingham in the EFL Cup, with Stephen Welsh, Tiago Parente, Joseph Opoku, Elijah Just and Moussa Yeo in contention to make debuts.
Fellow new recruit Ross Stewart will come into the mix in the next couple of weeks as he builds fitness, meaning there is a fresh look to a Swansea team who said goodbye to the likes of Ethan Galbraith, Malick Yalcouye, Joel Ward and Gustavo Nunes this summer.
Matos says Swansea have used pre-season “to build relationships, develop ideas and refine ideas from the past” – but that there is still work to do.
“Of course, any team in the world isn’t the end product now,” he said.
“I think we are stepping in that direction.
“You need to introduce the new signings and you need to adapt international players who return [to training] later, so there are a lot of small things that need time.
“Like all the teams at the moment, we are getting back in terms of game quality, in terms of fitness. That will come with the competitive games.”
