Dean Smith has insisted there is enough quality in the Norwich City team to put on a good performance this weekend against Everton.
Two goals from in-form Jarrod Bowen secured victory for the Hammers on Wednesday night, meaning the Canaries have now lost their last six Premier League games and not scored since November.
Reflecting on the upcoming fixtures, Smith said: “Every game we play at the moment is a huge game. We’re more than aware of the bad run of results and we’re desperate to go and get a win.
“We’ve got some players back now who have got some minutes under the belt now who are ready for this game. We have to go and show it in front of our supporters.
“The performance was better against West Ham, but now we have to go and turn that into victories and goals, so that we can give the fans something to shout about on Saturday.”
City have been hit with a large number of illnesses and injuries that have affected the squad and performances on the pitch.
Seven changes were made to the side against West Ham mid-week, with a few resident faces returning to the side, but the final result was unable to reflect the improvement in performance.
“I think every game that you go away with another defeat, it takes a hit on the confidence, but getting players back has certainly helped us. I thought that helped us with the performance on Wednesday and that can help us moving forward as well.”
Having been part of the club for three months now, Dean talked about how he felt things were going from a manager’s perspective.
“It’s been a tough period, I won’t lie and say it’s been easy. I do a job that I love, I believe I’m good at it and I believe we can turn this around and the players need to believe that as well.
“It’s an unbelievable role that I’ve got and the job you have as a Premier League manager is a privilege you have to work hard every day and the challenges are there for all to see.”
Dean passed his compliments onto the weekend’s opposition manager, Rafa Benitez: “I have every respect for Rafa Benitez, we’ve all seen what he’s done at Liverpool and Newcastle, keeping them in the league when it didn’t look likely they were going to. I’m not quick to judge on performances.”
Dean also spoke about the importance of the togetherness of everybody at the club, not just the players: ““Everybody knows getting into the Premier League is hard, staying in it is even harder because of the quality of squads that are in here.
“I’m not bothered what people outside the club say, everybody will have an opinion. We know what goes on inside this football club and how hard we work.
“We’ve got players coming back and when they’re back we need to prove what we are about.
“We’ve certainly spoken in the dressing room about that siege mentality where we want to come out fighting and try and prove people wrong.”