Moving Target

What can FPL managers expect from Dean Smith at Norwich?

Earlier today, Norwich City announced the appointment of Dean Smith as their new head coach on a two-and-a-half-year deal.

The former Aston Villa manager – who was only relieved of his duties at Villa Park eight days ago – succeeds Daniel Farke, who was sacked after an unsuccessful start to the season which has seen the Canaries win just one of their opening 11 Premier League matches.

Smith’s first game in charge will be at home to Southampton in Gameweek 12, with fixtures against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Newcastle United to follow, before the schedule quickly takes a turn for the worse in Gameweek 15, right through until the end of the year in fact:

The new head coach, who will be joined in Norfolk by no. 2 Craig Shakespeare, will be coming in with fresh ideas, but what does his appointment mean for Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers?

Our Moving Target report takes a closer look.

THE HISTORY

What can FPL managers expect from Dean Smith at Norwich? 3

Following a playing career which was mainly spent in the third tier of English football, Dean Smith quickly moved into coaching, where he progressed from head of youth at Walsall to manager. Despite being nine points adrift of safety in League One when he took over, he managed to keep The Saddlers up and then establish them as a mid-table club, which earnt him a move to Brentford in November 2015.

Implementing an attacking approach, he steered the Bees’ to several top-half finishes in the Championship while developing a number of talented players including Ezri Konsa (£4.9m), Said Benrahma (£6.4m) and Neal Maupay (£6.5m). As a result of that impressive work, he then secured a dream move to his boyhood club Aston Villa in October 2018.

With the team lying 14th in the Championship upon his appointment, Smith impressively guided Villa to promotion at the first time of asking via the play-offs, before narrowly avoiding relegation in their first season back in the top-flight. However, 2020/21 is when his team really caught the eye. Led by captain Jack Grealish (£7.7m) and an inspired Emiliano Martinez (£5.5m), the Villans finished 11th in the Premier League, while only Manchester City and Chelsea could trump their total of 15 clean sheets.

During his time at Villa, he also steered them to the 2019/20 League Cup final, but was sacked eight days ago having lost five successive Premier League matches, with the club in 16th place, just two points above the relegation zone.

FAVOURED TACTICS

“I want players to go and express themselves, and give them options for what they can do, but also give them ownership of their game. There’s no right or wrong in the way the game is played.” – Dean Smith

Tactically, Dean Smith is an adaptable coach who mainly opted for a 4-2-3-1 / 4-3-3 formation at Villa, though he did on occasions dabble with a back-three system.

His teams generally remain compact, and at least in 2020/21, were extremely difficult to break down.

Favouring a vertical approach which aimed to get the ball forward quickly, they were heavily reliant on Grealish last season, and as a result, preferred to attack down their left, where they would look to create overloads with lots of short give-and-go’s.

Aston Villa’s 4-2-3-1 (left) and 4-3-3 (right) in action during the 2020/21 campaign

THE PROSPECTS

What can FPL managers expect from Dean Smith at Norwich? 2

The outlook at Norwich certainly doesn’t look great right now, especially from a Fantasy perspective, with the club bottom of the Premier League having lost eight of their 11 matches so far. 

However, on a more positive note, the Canaries remain just five points from safety and did record their first league win of the season at Brentford prior to the international break, which does offer some hope that they can survive with 27 games still left to play. 

The underlying numbers remain a huge concern, however, as they rank bottom in many of the key metrics at both ends of the pitch:

MetricTotalRank v other Premier League sides
Goals scored520th
Non-pen xG7.6220th
Goals conceded2620th
Non-pen xGC19.7820th

One of their main deficiencies this season has been creating in the final-third, with the departure of playmaker Emiliano Buendia (£6.2m) in the summer hitting them hard. And while Smith may look to address that in the transfer market in January, in the meantime, he could turn to Chelsea loanee Billy Gilmour (£4.4m), who could be used in a more advanced box-to-box midfield role if a 4-3-3 formation is favoured. 

That kind of system could also benefit Todd Cantwell (£5.3m), who has struggled this term and hasn’t featured since Gameweek 5, but did thrive a couple of years back when he produced six goals and two assists in 2019/20. Encouragingly, it was also reported that Smith tried to sign the winger during his time in Birmingham – could we perhaps see that left-sided bias we saw at Villa continue at Norwich, then, via Cantwell and full-back Brandon Williams (£4.0m)? 

Elsewhere, in Mathias Normann (£4.5m), Norwich have a good midfielder who is possibly the best of the £4.5m options right now, with a goal and assist in seven appearances since moving to Carrow Road, while Teemu Pukki (£5.8m) is a solid forward on penalties who could offer value when the fixtures fall kindly. At the back, it’s hard to get too excited about anyone, but Max Aarons (£4.3m) is an attacking full-back who could become a squad player if Smith can tighten them up.

However, there is little reason to look at Norwich assets ahead of Gameweek 12, despite a possible new manager bounce, as in every category, there are better alternatives to target who at least carry some form into this round of fixtures.

The schedule certainly doesn’t help, either, with the improving Southampton and Wolverhampton Wanderers up next, followed by an away trip to Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United, before a challenging festive period. That suggests Canaries assets are probably best avoided, then, at least until we have seen signs that they are moving in the right direction under Smith.

307 Comments Post a Comment
  1. DA Minnion (Former great)
    • 11 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    If Kane gets another hat trick this evening then I'm getting him.

    1. Miguel Sanchez
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 7 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      I’d be surprised if he didn’t

    2. GreennRed
      • 12 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      Prob worth getting anyways but too pricy for me at the moment.

    3. Salah’s Sonnet
      • 12 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      But San Marino aren't better than even championship teams.

  2. Hansel
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 13 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    Have Havertz + Vardy and 2FT. Best option?

    A) Jota, Kane +1.3m ITB
    B) Son, Vardy + 1FT
    C) Havertz, Kane +0.7 ITB +1FT

    1. Miguel Sanchez
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 7 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      A

  3. Drieet
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 11 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    Almost settled on my WC, still last few decisions to make:

    Guaita - XXX
    TAA - Cancelo - Chillwell - Reguillon - Livra
    Salah - Foden - Trossard - Bowen - XXX
    XXX- Wilson - Davis

    Which one is best of these?
    A) Kane - Gallagher (- Gunnarson)
    B) Son - Jimenez (- Foster)

    1. GreennRed
      • 12 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      A but not too fond of Trossard or Bowen.

    2. Miguel Sanchez
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 7 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      A

    3. Salah’s Sonnet
      • 12 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      B

  4. AC/DC AFC
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    Is it likely that there will a few injury scares and maybe worse coming up in the next 26 hours or so?

    1. JoeTweaks
      • 2 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      Don't do this to me...WORRYING ACTIVATED. I seriously hope not

  5. Cheeky Onion
    • 6 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    Been out of the loop over the Itnl break and looking to get the squad into shape for GW 12. 2 FT - 0.2 ITB & still have WC

    Sanchez
    TAA - Cancelo - Rudiger - Livra
    Salah - Raph - Havertz
    Vardy - Toney - Antonio

    Foster - Veltman - Sarr - Brownhill

    Want to move Sarr on, Sanchez suspended with Foster playing United this week, any word on Lukaku/Werner back to replace Havertz?

    What would be your moves?

  6. zon
    • 9 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    Got 2 FT's, 1.5 itb and a solid team.

    Ramsdale
    TAA • Cancelo • James • Chilwell • Livra
    Salah • Raphinha • Mbeumo
    Antonio • Jesus

    Foster Vardy ESR Brownhill

    Think I'm dodging the spurs hype for the time being. Vardy's got better underlying stats, Leicester has better attacking stats as a team, good fixture run. Raphinha is class but I still think he's been fortunate.

    Hence the move would be Raphinha -> Jota and reassess. Thoughts on this reasoning?

    1. GreennRed
      • 12 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      I think the opposite. Raphinha is the main attacking outlet for Leeds and Jota is rotatable in the Liverpool team with plenty of attacking options. Seems to miss more than he scores for club and country.

      1. zon
        • 9 Years
        2 years, 4 months ago

        Cheers for.your input. Bobby our with the hammy makes Jota practically nailed increasing the appeal

    2. Salah’s Sonnet
      • 12 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      I'm thinking if Raphinha has been a tad fortunate as well, and Leeds as a whole don't look brilliant, also debating wether to do Raph to Jota after next GW.
      It's a good solid team I agree, not nice burning a transfer but can't think of where to improve other than Raph to Jota.

  7. Shark Team
    • 6 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    Any reason Vardy is 5th on the poll?

  8. Piggs Boson
    • 12 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    It's coming home.

    1. ‘Tis the Season
      • 5 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      Enjoyed this…as random as it is

  9. g40steve
    • 6 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    Some of these countries need to do a qualification to get into the group stages, the quality & level is so very poor!

    1. GreennRed
      • 12 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      It's seeded. They're expected to be poor.

  10. AC/DC AFC
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    Horrible penalty...

    It may be technically correct.

    Oh well, Kane goal.

  11. gooberman
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 12 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    Pathetic decision to give a penalty in my opinion. Not only is it not clear that it touched the players hand but it had no bearing on the outcome of Foden's shot.

  12. Isca Extremadura
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 10 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    Scenes - SOT San Marino

  13. Isca Extremadura
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 10 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    When did England last score 10 goals ?

  14. Shark Team
    • 6 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    Given Son's great home record even when Spurs struggled a lot,
    I think the question is not "Kane or Son?"
    but it's: "Kane in addition to Son?"
    p.s. Kane's 7 goals in the last 2 matches with England dont necessarily make me trust him tbh

    1. _Freddo
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 14 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      Trust for Kane doesn't come from the last two games, it comes from the last five or six years, he's not Lacazette, he was in everyone's team a few months ago.