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Farke Sacked // Smith appointed

Discussion in 'Norwich City' started by DHCanary, Nov 6, 2021.

  1. RiverEndRick

    RiverEndRick Well-Known Member

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    I'm very pleased with Dean Smith and that it's now confirmed. My difficulty is seeing how this appointment ties in with Webber's views throughout the 'project'. I struggle to see many links so for me this is the end of that phase and the start of a new one much more like the Lambert, Hughton and Neil ones. We have some idea from Smith's approach at Brentford and Villa and that looks to be a reasonable fit with the players we have, though there could be some tweaks in the January window. I like the idea that his aim will be to make CR a tougher place for teams to come to. Southampton will be the first test of that, though some early goals again would be good as well. Fingers crossed our fightback starts now.
     
    #321
  2. DHCanary

    DHCanary Very Well-Known Member
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    Apparently not. Coaching team will be Smith, Shakespeare and Ed Wootton who has stayed on. No plans for an extra coach to be added immediately, perhaps one addition in the medium term.

    So our coaching team will be smaller than under Farke.

    I can understand Smith wanting to bring in his right hand man, and get to grips with the club before deciding on what is needed, but considering we're prepared to spend millions on a soccer robot, I'm surprised we don't have a coaching team with more specialists.
     
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  3. RiverEndRick

    RiverEndRick Well-Known Member

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    I think more specialists will be brought in once things are up and going. Is Smith actually in Norwich yet? There are no videos or photos of him holding up a City scarf at the stadium, so that may have to wait. The players return tomorrow (except Pukki, as Finland plays tomorrow night), so things will have to get up and running quickly.

    I think the 'soccer robot' cost £750k by the way.

    Edit: I've just seen that Smith won't be in Norwich until Wednesday:

    https://www.skysports.com/watch/vid...69224/smith-to-arrive-in-norwich-on-wednesday
     
    #323
    Last edited: Nov 15, 2021
  4. Robbie BB

    Robbie BB Well-Known Member

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    Well pleased with Dean Smith's appointment, irrespective of which league we are in next season. Experienced, modern, forward thinking, with proven man management skills and a track record of developing young players. Comfortable with a numbers-based, Brentford-style approach to scouting and recruitment, which is what we are moving to, and appreciative of our club ethos. Decisive action by Webber both in terminating DF's tenure and seizing the opportunity presented by DS's unexpected availability <applause>
    With DS in charge we are in a better position than when the final whistle blew at Brentford. We have somewhat improved our chances of survival this season, though the odds remain heavily against; and if we are relegated, we've improved our chances of coming back next time better equipped to survive. Within the parameters set for him, Daniel Farke and his coaches did a brilliant job. Simultaneously, Stuart Webber has overseen an off-field transformation such that the club is in better shape now than it has ever been. Would anyone really settle long term for a reality in which Season 2020--21 was "as good as it's going to get"?
     
    #324
  5. Puncturedtractortyre

    Puncturedtractortyre Well-Known Member

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    Well pleased with appointment - much more experienced and proven than Frank Lampard
     
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    Last edited: Nov 15, 2021
  6. Robbie BB

    Robbie BB Well-Known Member

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    Re. Dean Smith's coaching team, John Terry and Richard O’Kelly who were with him in the Championship and subsequently the EPL, left Villa in the summer. It's not clear to what extent the replacement team, other than Craig Shakespeare, were of Dean Smith's choosing, rather than brought in by the Sporting Director Lange. The resulting upheaval is said to have contributed to Villa's inconsistency this season which in turn may explain why only Shakespeare has followed DS to Carrow Road.
     
    #326
  7. DUNCAN DONUTS

    DUNCAN DONUTS SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIOR

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    Are you referring to Sargent as the "soccer robot " ?

    <laugh>
     
    #327
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  8. zogean_king

    zogean_king Well-Known Member

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    If he is, then he has about as much control as I have when learning the controls of FIFA!
     
    #328
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  9. DUNCAN DONUTS

    DUNCAN DONUTS SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIOR

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    He must mean Cantwell

    giphy (16).gif
     
    #329
  10. SteakFrites

    SteakFrites Member

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    A Villa fan who comes in peace - sorry, I don't know about the etiquette of rival fans on this message board, but I just wanted to give you some insight into what you can expect from Dean Smith, and (to a lesser extent Craig Shakespeare).

    You can read yourself about his career history on Wikipedia, the long story short is that he spent a large amount of time at Walsall, moved to Brentford, and then eventually came to us, where he spent the last 3 years till he was sacked until recently.

    Prior to his arrival in the Championship, DS had this Brentford thing over us where no matter what we did we couldn't beat his sides, at the most we scraped lucky draws despite (on paper) having a stronger team. I always thought it was down to luck and us having an incompetent manager in Steve Bruce, but actually those results weren't fluke, they were a testament to how well prepared DS was. His Brentford teams always played attractive and attacking football, and to be honest I totally underestimated his ability as a coach.

    Operationally he is as sound a manager as you will find in the Premier League!

    When he joined us, things started to change, you could see that his training methods were different compared to everyone else's. In his first week in the job, the players only trained without the ball as he looked to solve the issues that we had been having around tracking back etc and we ended up winning against Swansea, in his post match interview, it's safe to say that he blew our minds with the way in which he talked with second phases, pressing, overloads etc. He even used to show video clips to the players at half time to get them to improve. Like any football team, we lost games, but you never felt that we would be unprepared to be honest, he had always done his homework, and that for me was super important.

    After the playoff final, he said that we were so prepared for Derby, that if we would have played that final 100 times, we would have beaten them 99 of those times, and I completely agree with him. It's also worth saying that whilst he had Grealish and he's a great player etc etc, Smith was the only manager that we've had that got him performing to anything like the level that led to the clamour for him to be included at International level.

    Our first season back in the PL was bumpy, the issue was that we had done too well, and probably DS should have had another season in the Championship, as a result he had to recruit a whole new team. I think it was this season that showed both his slight naivety, and also his flexibility in using his methods to improve things. We always tried to attack on the front foot in our first season back, but we also lost games from winning positions, because defensively we were poor. The break in that season helped us, but he also used that time properly, analysing good defensive teams both domestically, and also Lazio who had the best defensive record in Europe. When we came back, we didn't get results immediately, but we were hard to beat and eventually did the great escape.

    We recruited well in his second season Cash, Martinez, Watkins, Traore, all came in and did jobs, defensively we were sound, we were playing some amazing football. We also recruited Shakespeare which was inspired at the time and just what we needed because our backroom team didn't have a lot of PL experience, I think he had an immediate impact and his knowledge of the game was sound and contributed to a ton of good results at the beginning.

    The standout result for me that season was actually against Crystal Palace on Boxing Day where we beat them 3-0 despite having 10 men (it later transpired that Smith always used to have us training 10 v. 11 to simulate that). Other great results followed, and the type of football we played was amazing and entertaining. I genuinely thought it would see us getting to Europe, but 2021 changed that for a number of reasons.

    I won't go into this year too much, because it has been poor. But to sum up, in DS you'll likely get

    1. A coach with really good forward thinking ideas and highly analytical
    2. Someone who will improve and bring on players to the next level
    3. Entertaining and attacking football with a lot of goals
    4. Long runs of decent results
    5. A team that is well drilled and prepared for each game
    6. A manager that will look to instill and build a culture in the club
    7. No BS excuses when you lose
    8. Always looking to improve

    But the bad stuff that you may also get

    1. Periods of poor form where for some reason it takes him long to recover for some reason
    2. A bit of a blind spot when it comes to tactically seeing whats wrong (though this may be for other reasons)
    3. Can be a bit naive at times
    4. Maybe a bit too nice

    On the whole though, I personally felt he was a great manager for us, and whilst I acknowledge that the results didn't warrant keeping him on, I was extremely sad to see him leave us.

    Hope that's insightful.
     
    #330
    Last edited: Nov 15, 2021

  11. SuffolkCanary

    SuffolkCanary Well-Known Member

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    Thank you for your insight SteakFrites, I think I speak for all on the NCFC when I say you are more than welcome here
     
    #331
  12. SuffolkCanary

    SuffolkCanary Well-Known Member

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    Connor Southwell of the PinkUn believes the coaching vacancies will be filled from within by internal promotion
     
    #332
  13. Bure budgie

    Bure budgie Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for that mate.
    Best of luck with Gerrard.
    What's your opinion of Gerrard?
     
    #333
  14. DUNCAN DONUTS

    DUNCAN DONUTS SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIOR

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    In the season that we went down and Villa stayed up .

    IF the Sheffield United goal was given that VAR blatantly screwed up Bournemouth would have stayed up and Villa gone down.

    That one moment has crippled Bournemouth and completely changed the future of Villa .

    You have to hand it to Smith last season though they survived comfortably 27 points above the drop in 11th.

    I was disappointed we didn't get Lampard but warming to the idea of Smith now .

    He's less likely to jump ship at the first opportunity and doesn't have the **** factor that Lampard and Gerrard bring.
     
    #334
  15. SteakFrites

    SteakFrites Member

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    I'm a bit 50:50 on it to be honest.

    I think the biggest element of risk in the appointment is that we don't know what will happen when he hits a bad run of form, mainly because he's never had a long stretch of losses at Rangers. But equally after hearing his first interview, there are signs that maybe he could do a good job.
     
    #335
  16. SteakFrites

    SteakFrites Member

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    I think the one coach he may come back for from Villa is Neil Cutler, who is our goalkeeping coach. He seemed to get more involved with training and could be seen giving instructions to the players on match days from the bench, and Smith knows him from his Walsall days.

    It'll be interesting though because Cutler is also rated by our board, so they might be loathe to lose him.

    Other than that I would say that there really isn't anyone else worth raiding us for. Though Smith may also bring in Richard O'Kelly who worked with him at Brentford and Villa (till he left this summer and has been out of work since).
     
    #336
  17. SuffolkCanary

    SuffolkCanary Well-Known Member

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    Our goalkeeping coach Ed Wooten was one of the only coaches that was kept on so I’m not sure whether we would make a move for Neil Cutler.
     
    #337
  18. SteakFrites

    SteakFrites Member

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    Yeah most likely you won't then in that case.
     
    #338
  19. DUNCAN DONUTS

    DUNCAN DONUTS SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIOR

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    Maybe we will ditch Zonal bloody marking ?
     
    #339
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  20. DUNCAN DONUTS

    DUNCAN DONUTS SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIOR

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    Does Smith use Zonal marking ?
     
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