Yes

Paddy Davitt
Paddy Davitt
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3 May 2022, 17:00

Reputations or big price tags will count for nothing in Dean Smith’s Norwich City reset.

The Canaries must prepare for another tilt at the Championship, after relegation from the Premier League was confirmed at Smith’s old club Aston Villa.

City embarked on a club record outlay last summer for the likes of Milot Rashica, Josh Sargent and Christos Tzolis. While Billy Gilmour, Mathias Normann and Ozan Kabak were all eye-catching loan arrivals.

Tzolis, in particular, has had limited chance to impress with just three Premier League starts, but Smith has a word of advice for the Greek international, and anyone else, over the final four top flight games, and what comes next.

“He has to prove that he is in front of the players in the same position as him, it’s quite simple to get into the team,” said Smith. “You’ve got to go and show day in, day out that you’re better than the other players you’re competing with.

“That’s the beauty of competition. We have it at the football club and within the squad. It doesn’t matter whether you bought in for £30m or £40m, or £100,000, it doesn’t matter to me.

“What you have to do is prove every day when you train that you’re better than the people you’re competing against.”

Smith has not been slow to change personnel – without perhaps the desired impact on the park – after persistent individual errors.

“You have to be consistent as a coach, and I’ve maintained my consistency in my approach of how I deal with players,” he said. “If you think they’ve got too many fingerprints on chances against us, then they need to know that because they need to work on it and get better on it.

“My way has always been to talk to the players and have an open conversation if I’m changing the team.

“I’ll pull the players individually and talk to them and tell them why and give them the opportunity to voice their opinion on what they’re doing and how they can improve.

“Part of that is down to me as a coach and understanding these players a lot better. Some players will make a mistake, and you’ll let that go because you know they learn from it very quickly. Others have to come out of the team and learn a different way. That’s my job.

“We have to make sure we are improving and getting better, and players taking responsibility, and I will have to take that responsibility as well.”

Posted By: Kangol Canary on May 3rd 2022 at 18:42:39

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