I’m slightly reluctant to submit yet another article, focusing on our much-maligned Head Coach and add to the hostile narrative theory. But I’ll try to remove any emotive vitriol and hopefully dispel the notion that those of us calling for change are rabid maniacs, who are out for his blood.
So I’ll channel the spirit of Mick Dennis and start with some positivity.
I’ve never met Dean Smith. People I work with who have met him assure me he’s a genuinely decent guy. Friendly, unassuming and polite, and wholly undeserving of personal abuse.
The accusations that he’s a clueless, footballing ‘dinosaur’ are also well wide of the mark and possibly stem from a preconception that only young or foreign coaches have the tactical nous to develop a clear game plan and philosophy.
Anyone who has gained their pro license and managed in the top tier possesses a far deeper understanding of the game than those of us watching from the stands. Furthermore, his approach of involving the players in the development of tactics and promoting on-field problem-solving is considered to be progressive in coaching circles.
It’s easy, but slightly unfair, to pull apart quotes from post-match interviews. What someone chooses to say publicly is often far removed from what they genuinely believe or may admit to in private conversation.
“We were cr@p, Paddy. The players clearly aren’t responding to my methods and I’m surprised I’m still in the job”.
While that level of honesty would be refreshing, it would also prove to be career-limiting, so a bullish defence built on deflection and a reliance on spurious statistics are perhaps understandable.
But, for the record, I have never wanted Norwich City to lose a football match, and to avoid any doubt, I want Dean Smith gone.
My reasons are simple and devoid of emotion.
I don’t enjoy watching my team play football under his stewardship and I don’t believe he will deliver the results needed to secure promotion.
As Matt Ware highlighted, the challenge of playing in the Premier League, under our current operating model, is not something to be relished. However, the financial implications of missing out are enormous and the prospect of returning to the wilderness years of Championship mediocrity (or worse) is something no Norwich City fan wants.
Yet, despite his apparent credentials, it’s increasingly difficult to envisage Dean Smith on the City Hall balcony.
My view is that Smith was genuinely stung by the criticism that he lacked a defined playing style. In response, he chose to revert to and stick with what felt comfortable; his preferred playing style and a tried and tested hybrid formation (that could be described as either 4-3-3 or 4-1-4-1, depending on the phase of play).
There is logic in lining up and persisting with a formation that you’re comfortable with. From a coaching perspective, it allows you to focus on the finer tactical details and provide absolute clarity on the requirements of each role.
The fundamental problem is that he lacks the players to make it effective. Furthermore, his approach of placing the onus on the players to find solutions has led to the team looking disjointed and lacking cohesion.
There are square pegs in round holes and they’re being asked to make decisions that don’t come instinctively.
In the circumstances, a more prescriptive coaching style would surely be more appropriate, or better still, devise a formation and way of playing that better utilises the talent you have available.
It may sound ridiculous to suggest that professional footballers are unable to adapt their game, but consider Teemu Pukki. The insistence on playing the Finn as a ‘9’ is understandable, bearing in mind his goal-scoring record. But he was signed specifically for his prowess in specific attacking situations.
Pukki thrives playing off the shoulder of a defender, anticipating and receiving balls in the channels between centre-back and full-back, using his pace over short distances. His effectiveness and attacking threat is significantly reduced when chances are principally created from the wings.
Josh Sargent’s potential and form, make him another shoo-in for the starting XI but it’s clear that he’s not a natural winger. In Smith’s preferred formation, he should surely be starting over Pukki as the attacking fulcrum.
Of the club’s contracted wingers, two are out on loan, meaning Onel Hernandez is enjoying a surprising renaissance, albeit often from the bench. The popular Cuban looks comfortable in the role he’s being asked to play, but the long-standing issue of his end product remains his Achilles heel.
In midfield, Isaac Hayden’s experience has added some protection to the defence when out of possession, but as a single deep-lying pivot, his lack of pace and creativity hinders progression into the attacking thirds. Liam Gibbs offers more in possession but has been exposed without the ball.
As for the remaining spots in the starting XI, only Aaron Ramsey and Kenny McLean seem to have gained Dean Smith’s confidence; the former adding slightly more consistency than the other creative options and the latter providing experience and on-field leadership.
But the reality is we haven’t got a truly settled core and this year’s Barry Butler award is rapidly turning into a one-Josh race, despite him being played out of position.
The players look increasingly devoid of confidence and ideas and it can be no coincidence that City currently have the unwanted accolade of committing the most errors leading to goals. You can blame a hostile crowd but ultimately it’s the coach’s role to create the right environment for the team to play without fear.
Smith is throwing different combinations of pegs into the holes and switching them around at the 60-minute mark to try and effect a change. As a result, there’s no consistency in our attacking play.
Ultimately, his reluctance to deviate from the formation and gameplan, and tailor it to the squad’s strengths is costing us.
That lack of flexibility was horribly exposed at home to Middlesbrough. With City dominating the opening 20 minutes, Carrick tweaked his midfield and completely nullified the space afforded to Ramsey and City’s attacking threat.
And yet Smith failed to respond.
He should be, and is, better than that, but as the pressure grows, and the wagons circle around Colney to mute any dissenting voices, he’s projecting an air of belligerent stubbornness.
Like all of us, I desperately want my team to be successful and I want to enjoy going to Carrow Road again so I’d be thrilled if he turned it around.
My head and my heart tell me it’s simply not going to happen.
Hi Steve.
Well said and you make perfect sense in the cold light of day.
When head and heart align you know you are right, even though you [and myself to only a slightly lesser extent] would rather be wrong in this case.
Thanks mate.
None of us want the club to fail. We’ve invested too much time, money and emotion into it. Think that’s why the insinuation from DS that fans wanted the team to lose caused such uproar. The people who feel disconnected and chose to stay away (I suspect) do so because it hurts to see the club they love in such a poor state.
Cant see that he will,he had the world cup break to sort things out and at the moment theres no change.Webber has not helped him one bit by not buying the right type of player,therefore both should be shown the exit door asap.
The World Cup break looks to have been wasted Tony. But I guess DS had a lot of fires to put out. No evidence as yet of the different animal that was promised.
The recruitment side is a tricky one. Seems to me the club decided that ‘traditional Farkeball’ wasn’t going to work in the Prem, after the first relegation. You’d need players we simply can’t afford in order to consistently dominate possession and create the chances we did in the Championship, against Premier League teams.
So they looked to bring in pace (Rashica, Tzolis and Sargent) and play more on the counter, expecting that we’d have to surrender possession. Clearly it didn’t work out for either Farke or Smith and as a result we’re left with an unbalanced squad that doesn’t suit the way they’re being asked to play. It’s a shame as one of the early principles of the Webberlution was continuity and planning, to mitigate the problems caused by the inevitable departures of players and / or Head Coaches.
Congratulations Steve on one of the best reads I’ve had for some time, I whole heartily agree with everything you have articulately written, something I lack. I get hot under the collar and my keyboard fingers follow suit
Very Good piece. Can Smudger turn this round. I seem to recall saying that about 10 months ago, and the answer is still the same. He has said a few times he has the quality in the squad to get promoted, then what the heck is wrong. I have studied the game for 40 years and watched it longer. If players do not respond to the coaching and management, that isn’t down to the players. A manager needs to find away of reaching and working his squad., if he cannot he is in the wrong job.
Majority of the squad have won this league twice, it isn’t as if they are novices, or new to the game. Confidence should not be low after a winning run, yet some of those games looked fortunate. I see players looking almost scared to pass run and venture over the halfway line. (shades of Hughton)
He has also said he likes to be progressive, working with the ball when they don’t have it. It seems right, but it is what is done with the ball. He made mention of having 19 shots against Blackburn, perhaps the total on target tells you more, only 4, Blackburn almost managed that with under half of the total.
I appear to be one of the few that recall his words of how they allow the players to have a vast input into how they set up and play. It was a paragraph inside another article. I am of the belief that footballers need to be instructed in set-up and tactics. That’s is a coach’s job has been probably since football came to be. What we see is a mish-mash of unclear plans, If this is the best he can come up with, it certainly looks like it is, then he needs to ask to be sacked and get his sorry a*rse out of Carrow and Colney..
This is exactly what was said of his time at Villa, several Villa fans I know on social media, said they were peed off with his style (termed loosely) but he won so many over because it was his team his Dad was a steward and he swept the terraces. A case of putting up with him in the hopes of turning things around.
Webber has turned his back on the identity of Norwich Style, which it was going to be from Farke onwards with coaches employed who fitted the bill of possession based football which Farke built from the ground upwards. A soon as Farke is gone, he goes for ? I still cannot describe Smith’s style that why I like Smudger
And here we are. Time to say here’s your P45. in fact that time was back inNovember
Spot on mate.
‘Back in the day’, I was largely coached in a very traditional, prescriptive way. You learnt by being told exactly what to do (and punished with press-ups etc if you didn’t do it) and through repetition. Through that process, decision-making such as movement and positioning became second nature. There is a school of thought that modern coaches should work on teaching players how to make decisions for themselves rather than making the decisions for them. I tend to agree but it does rely on having the right profile of player for your game plan. I think the issue is that the players we have don’t naturally suit the system he’s trying to play. The attacking players have very different natural instincts so there’s no cohesion or understanding.
No need to apologise for the subject of the article Steve, its the most important theme currently occupying the minds of a majority of us City supporters. Absolutely no point in putting your fingers in your ears and singing laa la laa as per the current powers that be at the club who seem happy to jog along in a downward spiral. This sorry mess needs sorting out asap, a state of being in denial as the club have been for some while is helping nobody.
It was interesting to read this morning that Dean Smith spoke of supporters not being happy over ‘the last month or six weeks’, it goes back longer than that and perhaps if he’d attended the AGM he would have realised that fact. Sadly the people on the top table on that evening in November just won’t accept any criticism or even acknowledge a disconnect so what chance is there to resolve the situation.
I concur with your views and the thoughts of what appears to be a majority of the contributors on MFW, we’re reasonable balanced people as I’m sure are the local media and as you rightly say we all want the same thing.
Lies damn lies and statistics? Read this Dean. But first a summary of the first half season: consistently inconsistent. After a slow start from bottom we blazed 7 wins and a draw in 8 games to hold 2nd place for 6 weeks. As at the draw at Reading, P12 W7 D3 L2 an average of 2 points/game. We are now 9 points behind 2nd place averaging 1 point/game since Reading. At this rate we will avoid the play offs. Just as well we couldn’t fight our way out of a wet paper bag. Our home record since 17 September (West Brom) is DLLWDLL so 5 points from 21 available. Ramsey injured in Tampa? you couldn’t make it up. The last time we played our next 4 opponents we managed a point – at Reading: a pleasing symmetry somehow (not).
Personally, I don’t think the team is anywhere near good enough and DS has had to make do with some players who are below the level he would like. Before the Blackburn game, the two previous home games saw us rip teams apart for the first 20 to 30 minutes and then when the other team adapted to null the threat – there was no one on the park who grabbed the game and changed how we played and we spent the remainder of the game looking limp and disappointing. Against Blackburn, Ben Gibson took a lot of stick for passing the ball back – but he was not the only one at the back pointing out that there was a lack of movement ahead of him to play a safe pass to. We need a captain in the middle of the park who can drive the players around him – make them work and kick a few backsides.
I think DS was probably hoping for more injection of talent and clearing out of players at the start of the season – but a number of outgoing players simply went out on loan because other clubs did not offer to buy and the transfer kitty did not get topped up.
We have a good group of youngsters who will be excellent in a couple of years time and some foreign talent adjusting to our game .. we need an experienced leader to gel them all together through 90 minutes and teach them how to adapt to work out other teams weaknesses, similar to what other teams are doing to us.
It will be interesting to see who comes in during January if the Rashica transfer goes ahead but in my mind we need someone with the character of the old Roy Keane or Patrick Viera to add Steel to our middle and dominate the team to the point that players either step up or move out (Not that we will get players of Roy’s or Patrick’s Quality – but we need someone with their drive and character to pull the team together).
If DS handed in a list of players he wants moved on and a list of who he wants in … and due to the fact a lot of clubs outside the Premier league were not buying and due to our club finances, we only go a couple of the players wanted, the club management would be hard pressed to put all the blame on him and maybe that is why they have not moved to push him out – alongside the fact that they may not be able to afford to buy him out of his contract anyway … and could DS also be sick of life here and his comments at the weekend about the fans just being a maneuvering exercise where he is wanting to get the push but does not want to hand in his notice and lose a compensation package, so could we see him looking to worsen the relationship between himself and the fans until the club have no option but to sack him, but he walks away with a full bank balance. It is a confusing political mess 🙂
Good article – along with various others on this theme.
I think part of the problem is the manner in which we were relegated and the feeling among fans that however well we do this season, we’re thinking ‘what’s the point in promotion = we’ll just come straight down again’. This makes Smith’s job even harder. On the face of it 5th isn’t too bad at this stage of the season – we’ve all been spoilt by Farke’s 2 stunning promotions. Perhaps we do need a new manager with Smith as the scapegoat for our problems. But who do we want? Who’s available?
I also think Smith was right to criticise the fans last Saturday and also right to mention the narrative that’s been created. Some were onto the team after about 10 minutes. I’ve followed them since the early 60s and I just won’t boo them because I know it can’t help. I’d make the case that Blackburn got 2 very fortunate goals. I wouldn’t make the case that we played well.
Some fans have never warmed to Smith and my guess is that they want him out at any cost (to morale, atmosphere etc) and the sort of toxic atmosphere that they’ve promoted might well make it too difficult for him to continue – they think they know this and I can’t see it stopping until he has gone.
I tend to go along with some of the narrative – I’m never too sure about what he’s trying to achieve and the tactics are often unclear to me – do the players know?
It also appears that there are internal problems there and a very worrying disconnect from the fans – the club needs to start building bridges. Webber has kept well out of it. There wasn’t a reasonably open public assessment of our failures last season and inexcusably why the team was so unfit when football started again after covid in our first promotion season.
No solution
But these are (mainly) the same players he inherited when he joined……and more than once he claimed that they were good enough to stay in the PL.
Odd therefore that having burned up the Championship under Farke (twice!!), these same players are now not good enough – albeit under a different coaching set-up.
I do, however, agree that he’s probably hoping for a substantial pay-off to take care of his pension….and probably buy a box at Villa Park to follow the progress of the Ramsey’s.
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