Norwich City head coach Dean Smith has urged his players to play with the same freedom they showed in their second half performance against Chelsea on Thursday night when they take on Leeds United at Elland Road on Sunday.
The match is billed as a must-win for Norwich and Leeds, with both teams in relegation danger having lost their last six games in all competitions. The pressure is likely to be more on Leeds though being the home side and sitting six points better off than Norwich in the table. However, that could help Norwich on the day.
“The message (to the players) is quite simple,” said Dean. “More of the second half, less of the first. I thought we took the game to Chelsea when there was a bit of freedom, and we were 2-0 down. It was a really spirited second-half performance. So that will be the message to the players.
“The second-half performance showed me that they have got the fight. It was a massive disappointment the result against Brentford last Saturday. We can’t get away from that. I have said from box to box against Brentford we were the better team. In the two boxes we conceded a goal and conceded two penalties. I still don’t know how the penalty on Brandon Williams wasn’t overturned.
“That was a disappointment for us, but we carried that on by conceding so early against Chelsea. I was really pleased that we put in that spirited second-half performance because we needed that. The whole club needed that and we need to take that to Elland Road now which is a fantastic stadium with an unbelievable atmosphere.”
With just 10 games of the season to go and Norwich City sitting bottom of the table on 17 points, how crucial is Sunday’s match in terms of dragging a team above them into trouble?
“It is a really big match for both teams because we are both on a losing run at the moment,” said Dean. “Our losing run has coincided with games against Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea – the top three in the Premier League – but we know we have to get points because we have been sat on 17 for too long and we need to go and get some points against a team that is around us.
“I think every game is turning (into a make or break match) with only 10 games to go and 30 points to play for. We have to make sure that every game, our mentality is that we have to go and get points.”
Asked if they could turn what is likely to be a hostile atmosphere at Elland Road to Norwich’s advantage, Dean added: “Their support is fantastic, and it is a real tough place to go but we have to silence them as much as we can. We can do that by keeping the ball, we can do that by playing in their half and we can do that by taking advantage of set pieces as well. The players will be following a gameplan and it has to be about us, what we can do and how we can hurt the opposition.”