Norwich City head coach Dean Smith spoke to members of the media for his pre-Manchester City press conference following a refreshing hour-long dog walk on Friday morning!
Pep Guardiola’s side travel to Norfolk nine points clear of Liverpool at the top of the Premier League, after the Reds beat Leicester City 2-0 on Thursday.
“They’re a very good team but I’m not going to anger Pep again by suggesting they are the best team in the world, but they’re certainly up there aren’t they,” Smith said.
“They’re a very good team littered with stars all over the place. Whatever team they put out, you know it’s going to be a challenge.
“We all know that we have to have 11 players with eight or nine out of 10 performances. Whenever there’s a challenge, there’s an opportunity for players as well. In my experience, all players want to pit themselves against the best. I believe my players are looking forward to it and hopefully we can get the right performance and have a bit of fortune go our way as well.\
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“It’s 11 human beings against 11 human beings. Human beings have faults in them and can make mistakes. They make fewer, as everybody knows, but we’ve got to find some kind of weaknesses that we can put pressure on.”
When the team news is published at 4.30pm on Saturday, Norwich fans will see which formation Smith chooses, the Canaries flexible to switch up their setup.
“We’ve recently gone 4-4-2 and given up an extra man in midfield, which has probably cost us more possession of the ball in the last few games, but we’ve become more of a potent threat to the opposition, always leaving two players around their centre halves so they can’t advance as much,” Smith explained. “The challenge is simple - you’ve got to be better than you’re opposite number you’re up against and work extremely hard. There’s no substitute for that and you’ve got to show quality on the ball.
“The players have earned the right to become a team that’s hard to beat. They work extremely hard, are resilient and give less big chances away. Whether we’re playing Watford, Crystal Palace or Manchester City, it’s the next game and one that we’ll be trying to go and win.
“With the quality of players they’ve got, they’ve picked off an awful lot of teams and stronger teams as well, so it would be remiss to go all out attack against a team like Manchester City, but you can’t just be sitting ducks and allow the top players they’ve got the time and space to go and hurt you. We’ll be aggressive where we feel we can be, but we’ll use the ball well as well.
“We have to work the other side of hard. We’re not looking further than Man City. We might have to suffer without the ball, but as long as the ball is going where we can channel it, we can be good and in control without the ball. We’re full of respect for them, but certainly not fear.”
Norwich fans can fondly recall Manchester City’s previous visit to Carrow Road, Daniel Farke’s side winning 3-2 under the lights in 2019.
“I remember that game,” Smith said. “I was talking to Stuart Webber about it the other day. Norwich were under an awful lot of pressure, but when they won the ball back, they used it really well. That’s the balance we have to find that will help us tomorrow.
“Teemu scored in that game. During our meeting, we’ll speak about how hard it is to win but also we can talk about our experience of \[Aston Villa\] beating Liverpool 7-2, who were the champions at that time. It’s always possible for the so-called lesser teams to beat the big guns.
“We had some really tight games against City. I got sent off in that game away from home! In my defence, they did change the rule two days later for offside.
“The psychology of it is always important for every game you go into. I don’t see it as a free-hit because we’re not in a position to have a free-hit against anyone. We’re fighting for every point we can get to remain in this league. If you go into the game not believing, you’re already beat. You’ll have players running all over you. We can show them the physical stats that we can more than compete with them physically. It’s then what we do tactically and technically.
“They’re as good a team as I’ve seen for a long time. I thought the Liverpool team that almost went through the season unbeaten a couple of years ago was top, and now you’ve got Jurgen Klopp saying it’s the best squad he’s ever worked with and then Pep Guardiola nine points clear of Liverpool. Wow, those two teams at the moment are something else.
“I won’t be the only one who’s tried to study what Manchester City are doing. Pep has top class players who can carry out his instructions. He’s proven time and time again what a top coach he is and I’ve been fortunate to meet him a few times and what a top bloke he is as well.
“These aren’t the games that will define our season but we do go into them with renewed confidence and we feel we can pull off a shock.”
Smith also explained during his press conference how members of his squad have been contributing more to team meetings as belief and confidence has grown at Lotus Training Centre.
“This group weren’t used to being asked questions,” he said. “Now, in the meetings that we have, they’re a lot more vocal than when we first came in, which is really good because we’re all about trying to get better and learning, but I also need to know what they understand before we can teach them. Grant Hanley’s leadership skills have helped us progress the group.
“They understand what myself and Shakey are after. Liam Bramley has come to work with us as well. What we want is to keep improving individually and collectively, so we’re starting to hear a lot more voices in the dressing room, which is really important.
“We’ll do some analysis on the games, debriefs on them and start doing some unit work with the players. We always encourage questions. For me as a teacher, which we are as football coaches, you need to know what they know. Unless they ask you questions, you don’t know what they know. There’s no point me putting up some patterns and then expecting them to walk out and understand it all, so we encourage questions.
“It’s not heated. I only have two minutes after a game because that’s the most emotional time. The next day, when you review the match, you can have more of a rational approach to it and that’s what we tend to do and have a good chat.”
Ahead of the weekend, Norwich are 18th in the Premier League, one point behind Newcastle United, who have a game in hand.
“I take no notice of the other teams around us because I can’t concentrate on what they do,” Smith said. “What’s important to me is what we do. We’ve got to play Newcastle, Brentford and Burnley all at home and they’re the sort of games where this battle will be decided. We’ve got great belief in what we do and that we can take points in every game we play.”