Matchday With The Manager – 'A Clean Slate'
The 52-year-old, formerly of Walsall, Brentford, Aston Villa and Norwich City, has agreed a contract with the Foxes until the end of the season. Craig Shakespeare – who has himself held Smith's new post before at Leicester – and Chelsea legend John Terry have joined him for this eight-game assignment to retain City's top-flight status.
Manchester City away at Etihad Stadium is the first of that run-in on Saturday (5:30pm BST kick-off).
'We'll give leadership & guidance'
Speaking to the media in Seagrave on Friday, the 49th man to manage the Foxes spoke in depth about his methods, the impact he hopes his coaching team can make, and why there should be optimism about his new side's survival chances. Saturday's match at Man City will be Smith's 599th fixture as a manager.
"Ultimately, it’s an interim job," he said. "It’s eight games in seven weeks. Last week, I was watching The Masters on Tuesday and Wednesday in Augusta and now I’m back in a very windy England and looking forward to the challenge. We’ve got a leadership group at the Football Club and one of my first points of action was to speak to them on Monday evening.
"I had a meeting with them to just get their thoughts on why they feel we are where we are and what they think we can actually do to get out of it. We’ve got our ideas and we’ll put demands on both our staff and players.
"We’ll give leadership, give guidance, but ultimately, players make decisions on the pitch. I’ve looked at the squad and at the fixtures, and I felt there were games there to be won. There were points there to grab where we can actually climb out of the bottom three. It’s a season I’ve not seen before in the Premier League where nine teams have all been involved in the relegation side of the league. I feel it’s certainly not insurmountable to be getting out of the trouble we’re in.
"It's a great Club. We've seen what this Club can do and have done over the years. What I've experience so far, meeting the staff and the owners, has been really refreshing. There's a real humility I've seen among everybody and a real need to help us and be there for us if we need them. At the end of the day, we want to be a success and the only way we can be is by working together."
'One game at a time'
Smith is a coach with huge experience, while Shakespeare and Terry are both familiar with relegation scraps. The new Leicester Manager hopes that can be a weapon in their arsenal as they look to prolong the Club's nine-year Premier League stay.
He explained: "There are certainly comparisons with [managing Villa in a relegation fight], in terms of not setting targets, apart from, come the last game of the season, we want to be not in the bottom three.
"We’re taking it literally one game at a time and we’ll assess it after each game. We did that when we were at Villa. [Saturday] might be my 600th game as a manager, coming up from Walsall in League 1 to Brentford in the Championship, and Aston Villa and Norwich in the Premier League. We’ve certainly got the experience, with Craig Shakespeare and John Terry alongside me.
"As a three, I think it’s a strong three coming in, all with different qualities. All three of us have been through relegation battles in the Premier League and come through it. I think that experience will certainly hold us in good stead. Craig’s also been through the experience here at Leicester, which was a big thing for me. I think everybody knows his relationship with this Football Club. He believes we can do it as well. His experience will come in really helpful.
"JT has proven before, at Villa, that he can shore up defences as well. We’ve got six centre-backs here at the Football Club. Jonny Evans is coming back from injury and some players haven’t played as many minutes as we’d have liked so far, but we’ve got real good players who we can work with and are trying to work with now."
'Time is not our friend'
After a high-intensity week of training in Seagrave, the Foxes travel north to tackle Pep Guardiola's impressive Manchester City side. It's a tough first game for the new man in charge, but Smith has outlined what they need to get right.
"We've tried to make training a little more fun, more intense and more frantic," he said. "We've done that and I feel we've had a response. Yesterday (Thursday) was more of a tactical day. Today (Friday) will be a tactical day as well, but the buy-in from the players has been good so far. Hopefully we can continue that because, as I said before, time is not our friend.
"[We want to see] focus, concentration, energy levels, commitment and connectivity between the players throughout the team. It's a clean slate for everyone. We're fresh eyes on the players. We've liked what we've seen so far, but come tomorrow (Saturday), we're playing against one of the best and we have to have all of those components to get a result.
"I’ve watched an awful lot of very good teams try and impose their game onto Manchester City and come unstuck. We have to go with a game plan and stick to that game play – stay in the game for as long as we can, and we’ve also seen teams like Brentford go there and get results.
"Yes, they’re one of the strongest teams in the Premier League, if not the world, but we have to have that belief in ourselves that we can go there and get a result. We can’t get away from the fact that we’ve lost seven of the last eight games.
"I know the players, I’ve come across the players before when we’ve played against them, and we know it just needed a lift. I felt, with the three of us (Shakespeare and Terry) coming in, I was confident we could give them a lift. Over the first days we’ve had with them, we’ve seen great attitude, great quality and great enthusiasm. We’re trying to put some smiles on their faces. It’s tough, given the situation we’re in, but I’ve always been a big believer that if players go out and train with a smile of their face and play with a smile on their face, that can lift their confidence very quickly."