Plus: Using Norwich's youth and experience to try and beat the Premier League drop and the potential return of Todd Cantwell; watch Norwich vs Manchester United on Saturday Night Football from 5pm, live on Sky Sports Premier League and Main Event; kick-off 5.30pm
Saturday 11 December 2021 15:41, UK
It is early on Thursday morning when a cheery Dean Smith appears on Zoom three minutes earlier than scheduled. To break the ice, there is chat about tea and coffee habits, with the Norwich boss revealing his tea of choice - lemon and ginger, sometimes with honey in the winter.
Soon though, it is down to the serious business of football, which becomes ever more heightened when you are deep in a relegation battle, as the Canaries currently find themselves.
It was a somewhat unconventional path for Smith to Norwich too. Daniel Farke - who guided Norwich to two Premier League promotions, but also a relegation - was dismissed on November 6 after a dismal start to the season. Smith himself was sacked by Aston Villa the next day after a run of five successive league defeats.
But eight days and one trip to the USA later, Smith was the new Norwich manager, making an instant return to the pressure of Premier League management.
In an exclusive interview with Sky Sports' Charlotte Marsh - an Earl Grey enthusiast - Smith revealed: "I think the fact I've been in the professional game for over 34 years, I can detach quite quickly.
"I understand that if you lose five games on the spin, then you're under pressure. Did I expect to lose the job [at Villa]? Probably not at the time, but it happens so when I got the text, I was ready for it.
"We hadn't seen our son in a little while, he's in America and thankfully Mr Biden had just opened the borders, so as soon as that happened, it was 'right, let's get out to America to visit our son'.
"But Norwich came calling on the Tuesday before and asked if I would be interested. So I thought 'yeah I'll take the meeting, have a chat and see what they've got to say'. I quite liked what Stuart Webber and Neil Adams had to say.
"So we travelled over there and they phoned me while I was there, had a video call and I was really happy to accept. When we got back, it was a lot of shuffling around, packing and moving things, but, fortunately, I've got a very supportive family who have got used to that over the years."
So just what was it about Norwich that interested Smith?
"I think the structure first and foremost. Stuart is in charge of the football side of it, we've got great owners who have been really welcoming, but the structure is Stuart and I talking about football matters and Stuart making the decisions from there.
"There's no middleman to go through, so to speak, so it was quite a simple structure. It was something that I thought 'I like that' and I can work with Stuart and Neil, who are quite straightforward people like myself and Craig.
"The fact that Norwich won their last game [under Farke against Brentford] proved to me that they were OK in this league. The situation and the points tally wasn't OK, but I felt that looking at the squad, there were no injuries apart from Zimbo [Christoph Zimmerman] at the time, so it was a healthy squad. It was something that I felt had the potential and was probably underperforming.
"I watched a number of the games on my flight to the States and back, and I thought some of the goals we gave away were too easy and we needed to become a harder-to-beat team. I think that's what I've tried to instil in the first few weeks - let's be harder to beat, let's not give big chances away. I think we've been relatively good at that so far.
"I've been really pleased with the attitude of the players. I keep reiterating that, but the players have worked extremely hard. We've made some tweaks in the system tactically and I've been really pleased with what they've done on the pitch.
"Their performance levels have probably not been rewarded with the Premier League points we should have. I thought it was a good performance against Tottenham, they showed a clinical edge that we didn't, but we were very good against Wolves at home. Our two home games, I've been really pleased with so far.
"We restricted Tottenham to a few chances. Moura's put one in the top corner, I was disappointed with the second and third goals, but, on the whole, the big chances have been less and less and that's been a big plus for us."
It is not the first time Smith has found himself in the relegation quagmire. In January 2011, he led Walsall to unlikely survival in League One, with Aston Villa also battling the Premier League drop in recent years. Smith's assistant Craig Shakespeare also helped Leicester to keep their top-flight status in the 2014/15 season, marked as one of the Premier League's greatest-ever survival stories.
Norwich are currently bottom of the table on goal difference, but level on points with Newcastle - who they recently drew 1-1 against - and Burnley above them. Watford sit just above the trio in 17th with 13 points.
Smith reflected: "My first-ever job was labelled 'the great escape' at Walsall, going in there and being seven points adrift and playing two more games than the other teams and we stayed up in the last game of the season. All the experiences I've learnt over the years, whether it be at Walsall, Brentford or Villa, I will use them.
"Craig has also got a vast amount of experience, both keeping Leicester in the league and winning it too so those experiences will be certainly touched on all the way through and we're making sure we use it now with the players.
"They're a really good group who want to work hard, who want to get better and that's the key thing for me - if you've got players who want to get better, you've got a chance. The attitude and application has been outstanding so I expect improvements, whether we're playing against Manchester United or Manchester City, because they've showed me that they can.
"To be honest, I don't look at the bottom three. I'm looking at probably 13th, 14th and seeing how we can catch that up because the important part is to get away from that bottom three. You win two games on the spin then all of a sudden, you're on 16 points and you might be 15th or 14th and I think that's what we have to be looking at.
"Obviously, we can look no further than the next game to try and get three points but knowing there's always five, six, seven clubs in there that you're challenging with rather than just the four of you."
Smith finds himself with a young Norwich squad at his disposal. The likes of Adam Idah, Max Aarons and Andrew Omobamidele, plus loanees Brandon Williams and Billy Gilmour are just a few, with the Canaries again competing in the Premier League with exciting young talent, as they did the 2019/20 campaign.
"The talent identification and the recruitment process at the club has been very successful, we've all seen that," Smith said. "The likes of Ben Godfrey, who has gone on to Everton. Emi Buendia too, I signed at Aston Villa for an awful lot of money.
"So the recruitment and talent is here, and, as a head coach, I feel my job is to help improve and develop players. That's day-to-day, the behaviours around the training ground and what they do. The thing I like about both Brandon and Billy and probably the biggest compliment I can give them is that they don't look like loan players. They've settled in really well with the rest of the team and they will only improve.
"But we've got some really good seniors too who help set the tone in Grant Hanley, Ben Gibson, Kenny McLean. These older players have got the experience that can also set the standards for these younger players to thrive and fulfil their potential."
One young talent who has been conspicuous in his absence this season is Todd Cantwell. Some time away for personal issues plus a string of injuries has seen him only play a bit part this season, having appeared in 37 Premier League games with six goals just 18 months ago.
Smith said of the midfielder: "Before I came in, I knew what a good player he was, having seen him over the last two or three years, having twice being promoted and the other scoring six goals in the Premier League.
"He's a talented footballer, I gave him a start in my first game, but he hadn't been training with the first team, so he was just off the level a little bit.
"Over the recent weeks, he's been training a lot better and he's getting a lot closer now to having what's required to get into the starting line-up. He's pushing all the time and when he gets in the team, he'll be a big boost for everybody because he's got the talent to create and score goals."
Smith will face one of his biggest Norwich challenges when Manchester United visit Carrow Road on Saturday evening, live on Sky Sports.
Under new manager Ralf Rangnick, United have made a marked improvement, beating a stubborn Crystal Palace last weekend, and drawing against Young Boys in the Champions League with a drastically-changed XI.
Reflecting on the upcoming game, Smith said: "When a new manager comes in, he will slowly start putting his own structure on the team and how they're going to play. We've seen that already - I thought they were very good against Crystal Palace and against Young Boys on Wednesday.
"But the way his teams have played, they've got a clear identity, so we've certainly got an idea of what to expect, but they've got top-class players and top-class players adapt very quickly. I don't think it will take too long for Ralf to get his identity within that team and we'll be very respectful of how they're going to play on Saturday, not just with the quality of the players, but the coaching.
"Any football coach that's wanting to learn will know about Ralf Rangnick and the Red Bull model that he's helped to create there. We've all had a good idea of his coaching methods and what he does, there's certainly plenty of stuff out there that you can go and watch, and I've certainly been one of them.
"I've been really impressed with what he's done with teams, but also developing players as well. It's really interesting to hear him talk about developing them mentally as well as physically, because that's sometimes something that gets lost, but, as coaches, that's something we're all doing all the time and it's a really important part of it.
"I'm looking forward to coming up against him, it will certainly be a great test."
It is not just previous seasons where Smith can draw experience from. His Aston Villa side beat Manchester United 1-0 at Old Trafford in September. But it has been all change since them - Smith is now at Norwich and United have a different manager themselves.
Smith added: "Manchester United will come here as heavy favourites and rightly so with the squad of players they've got. But we've assembled a team ourselves that walked the Championship last season and are getting harder to beat. We'll respect Manchester United, but we won't fear them.
"Aston Villa had a terrible record against Man United and won for the first time in 14 years at Old Trafford when we played them earlier in the season.
"But now, with Norwich, I'm looking forward to taking on the same Manchester United team, but under a different coach. They're still the same players, so we'll certainly take some of the things we took into that game."
It will certainly be a stern test of how much Norwich have evolved under Smith in a few short weeks, but one that the Canaries head coach will be more than prepared for.
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