Cags and comebacks: How opinions have changed about Dean Smith
Having secured all three outcomes across his first three games in charge of Leicester City, Dean Smith now needs a second successive home win when Everton visit Filbert Way.
But have our expectations already been altered by what we’ve seen so far in the Smith era?
James Knight, Iain Wright and David Bevan explain how their views have changed since his appointment.
From hope to expectation
My initial reaction was to be nonplussed and underwhelmed as we veered from Jesse Marsch to Rafa Benitez to Dean Smith in the space of an hour or two. I also follow a lot of Norwich fans who hate him with the heat of a thousand suns.
I still need to be convinced that he's the right long term option (if we stay up). His career to this point suggests a pretty hard ceiling around 15th or so in the Premier League, which is great for us now, but perhaps wouldn't be once the stink of this season wears off and we start thinking about the future.
That said, I've been pleasantly surprised by how quickly he's realised who our good players are, and how he's tried out things I would never have expected - recalling Soyuncu and Soumare, playing all the strikers.
Smith inherited a hopeless situation and has got me expecting us to pick up results again, which has got to count for something.
James Knight
Guile and determination
I’m not sure whether my opinion about Dean Smith has changed because I hadn’t really got an opinion on him to start with! His appointment came out of nowhere so my overriding feeling at the time was actually one of relief.
Having finally parting company with Brendan Rodgers, enduring the utter shambles of Bournemouth and avoiding tying ourselves to Jesse Marsch on a three-year contract, I was simply delighted we had someone, anyone, we could get behind.
From that point, things have started to improve. It's great to have someone who actually wants the job and I like the package of having Shakey and Terry in there too - a mix of guile and determination we so desperately need.
In the three games so far, we didn't disintegrate against Manchester City, rode the storm to beat Wolves and, for the first time in forever, got a late equaliser at Leeds. The setup looks better and we've given ourselves a chance.
Under Rodgers, we were going to finish bottom. We left it too late to sack him and then inexcusably burned through the Villa/Bournemouth double header. Dean and co are such a good fit and we should have had these three in post-Brentford or at least post-Palace. A bit of forward planning, anyone?
So, in summary, I like the man, I like his coaches and I like what he's done so far... but sadly I can't shake the feeling we've left him with no wriggle room and fear the sense of us having left it too late.
Iain Wright
Who can you trust?
Looking back, it’s quite remarkable now that, when considering whether we should sack Brendan Rodgers, so many fans were asking who we would get instead. We’ve ended up with a manager discarded by a team in the division below and yet there’s clearly a fresh feel to things.
It’s almost like it didn’t matter to a certain extent who came in - the change was more important than anything. I think we can write off the Manchester City game in our assessments - even Arsenal were blown away there - and instead focus on the Wolves and Leeds games.
There have been a few prominent changes but, once you get past Soyuncu and Soumare, the next most interesting for me has been the benching of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall. I thought he’d be a fixture under this management, as he was for Rodgers. He looks really low on confidence at the moment though.
Despite helping the shape in the second half against Wolves, he was poor in possession and his body language seemed to show he knew it. It was no surprise Smith didn’t turn to him at Elland Road when the game needed changing. We need players we can trust, and KDH’s possession game has marked him out as one who can’t be trusted as things stand.
Despite all this, is there room for him in the lineup again given the balance still isn’t quite right, Kelechi Iheanacho is injured and Tete has been continually unable to make an impact? I’m still not convinced. But this is the sort of decision where we’ve left ourselves with almost no margin for error. Thankfully, Smith and co have shown they aren’t afraid to make tough choices.
David Bevan
