After Norwich’s 2-1 defeat at the hands of Hull City on Saturday it has left many Norwich fans questioning if Dean Smith is the right man for the job as the Canaries currently sit rock bottom of the Championship table after just three games.
I think firstly when looking at this debate which is currently circulating around all Norwich City social media platforms it’s important to take the emotion out of the debate. I can completely understand both sides of the argument here but it’s important to listen to one another rather than just shutting people down because they are bringing a different opinion to the table.
The vast amount of people seem to be saying that it’s time for Dean Smith to leave and for the club to not hold back to be able to save this season. However, I think people need to have a bit of perspective here and look at how poorly we started our last two title winning campaigns.
In the 2018/19 title winning year, we secured just one win in the opening six league matches and if the Canaries beat Huddersfield on Tuesday night, they would have the same record that we had after four matches of the 2020/21 season.
Norwich are notorious for starting the season slowly, as shown, even when you look further back at title winning seasons like all them years ago losing to Colchester 1-7 on the opening day.
The thing which makes it even more frustrating is that the performances are clearly there and we just aren’t taking our chances when we are on top in matches. Like yesterday, for example, complete domination in the first half in control of the match and then one silly defensive mishap and we find ourselves one nil down.
I think it’s very harsh to be judging Dean Smith off his time at Norwich so far when he had a squad which he didn’t assemble last year and managed to defiantly in the first couple of months get the best out of them. He got us out of the relegation zone in January which we decided to not buy anyone else to help Smith and instead let him be left with the squad that Webber and Farke had put together.
Due to this, after finding a system which was winning us games and getting us points, we then lost Adam Idah through injury and not having another striker meant the whole system had to be scrapped. Also, losing another key players such as Andy Omobamidele didn’t help that cause and by mid-March, we knew we were down anyway.
It would be a fair representation, in my opinion, to allow Smith a chance in a division which he is clearly proven in with his track record at Brentford and Aston Villa. I really don’t want to get shot down for this next point but it’s a valid one which makes you think it’s so close to all clicking together.
Expected Goals (XG). We have outperformed all of our three opponents this season on xG and in all of these games have then gone and gifted a soft goal away. The replies on this tweet show a real backwards direction in how we analysis the game. I know we haven’t taken points away from these matches but surely it shows that if we start taking our chances then we are clearly onto something.
We were poor away at Cardiff on the opening day of the season but the Wigan game and yesterday’s defeat at Hull both should’ve been wins. Yesterday, if Ramsey takes that chance then we probably do go on to win the game. It’s not the doom and gloom that the table is currently portraying and also why have we suddenly started to look at a table after three matches of a season?
We are dominating large spells of the game but defensively we are making silly errors which are costing us which needs to be worked upon. We still need to get in another centre back with the depth looking concerning in that position if Andy or Hanley were to get injured.
I think Dean Smith deserves a chance and will prove people wrong this season and in a few weeks’ time if he gets sacked and we are in an awful position then I hold my hands up and I’ll say I got it wrong. However, until that moment I will continue to back him and I can see what he’s trying to do here. If our finishing improves and we start scoring goals at the right times in matches then we will quickly fly up the league table.
All I’m asking for from the Norwich City fans is a bit of perspective as to how we have started the last two Championship campaigns which have ended up in us winning the title. It’s all so close to clicking together and if we can cut out these defensive errors and become more clinical upfront then we will fly up this league table.
Two massive nights at Carrow Road are coming up this week and if we beat Huddersfield and Millwall then I’m sure this negativity around the club will quickly fade away into hopefully a more upbeat feeling around the football club.