Matchday With The Manager – Stamp Our Authority On The Game
Positioned precariously above the relegation trapdoor, City are currently sat 16th in the Premier League ahead of travelling to meet Marco Silva’s side at Craven Cottage this Bank Holiday Monday (3pm BST kick-off).
Prior to that encounter, Smith’s fifth in charge of the Foxes since his appointment last month, City’s Manager sat down with the media inside the King Power Centre at LCFC Training Ground.
Learnings from Everton
Smith’s pre-match press conference began with a look back at the 2-2 draw with Everton last time out, a game which could have gone either way but ended with both sides taking a share of the spoils.
It’s the performance aspect that the 52-year-old is searching for improvement in, though, in order to increase the probability of leaving London with a positive result.
“We made the game a little bit too open and gave away too many chances,” he admitted, speaking on Thursday. “The games that we’ve had previously, we’ve created good chances and not given too many away, but that was my disappointment.
“We’ve given some big chances away and didn’t protect our goalkeeper enough. Our goalkeeper made some good saves, and he had to, so that defensive organisation was the bit that disappointed me the most.
“We’ve got to make sure that our defensive performance is better than it was against Everton on Monday night. The players were disappointed with some of the defensive aspects.
“We need to protect the middle of the pitch a little bit better than we did. We were certainly quite open in transitions. I don’t think we can afford to do that. But there’s only little tweaks we need to do to make that better. If we do that, then we’ll be a threat against Fulham.
“I believe there’s goals in the team, there’s quality in the team to produce those moments, but it’s been a long time since we got a clean sheet. It’s about time we got one of them.
“I’d like to get safe as soon as we possibly can. There is extra emphasis (on Fulham) because it is the next game. After that it’s a home game and we’ll concentrate on that. That’s all we can do at the moment.
“We can only take one game at a time and see where that leads us. The draw against Everton, we’d have liked a win, so would Everton, but it moved us two places up the table. Such is our goal difference, that probably gives us a point head start on the teams down there.
“But we’ve got to concentrate on getting a better performance than it was against Everton and I think if we get that, we can go and get a good result.”
Jamie Vardy’s form
City’s No.9 certainly has the bit between his teeth at present, scoring in his last two appearances and producing the type of displays that have given Premier League defenders sleepless nights for the best part of a decade.
Commenting on the former England international’s current form, Smith said: “I think people will have seen in his last few performances the hunger and desire that he’s got, the work rate, the fact that his legs are still there, and his brain is certainly still there. We’re really pleased that he’s back scoring goals for us.
“He got his first away one and now his first home one. We’re really pleased that he’s in a good place at the minute. He knows as well as anyone that as a centre forward and with the goalscoring record that he’s got, he’ll be judged on goals.
“He’s probably not had the pitch time to earn the goals or the chances. But what we’ve seen so far is that he’s created a penalty for us against Wolves in the win, he’s come on and scored at Leeds and scored and hit the bar on Monday night as well.
“He’s in a good vein of form at the minute, which is what we need with only four games to go. We’ve had to play more to his strengths when he’s played. We know he’s a player who is very intelligent in making runs but you need balls to go into the areas to make those.
“I thought it was a fantastic ball from James Maddison for his goal against Everton and another good ball for when he hits the bar. If you put the ball in the right areas, then he’ll make the runs. He makes things happen.
“It’s two fold - we have to have a supply line to him and he has to make the runs as well. All players like to get in that rhythm and like to be playing. But you’ve also got to be producing to stay in that team as well.
“He started that first game against Manchester City but didn’t see an awful lot of the ball. He started against Wolves and then had to come off at half-time and make do with coming on as a sub at Leeds.
“But it was a three-game week and we had to manage all players differently. We haven’t got that problem now. It’s a week run-up to games and six days recovery, so he’s fine and he’s certainly firing now.”
Praise for Fulham
A newly promoted team at the start of the campaign, the Cottagers have impressed many with their style of play and ability to earn points, particularly in the first half of 2022/23. The west London side may have lost their last three, to Liverpool, Manchester City and Aston Villa, but remain dangerous opponents, Smith believes, even without the likes of Aleksandar Mitrović, Andreas Pereira and Tim Ream.
“They’ve done a fantastic job,” the former Villa manager assessed. “They’ve probably been a little unfortunate in the last few games. The Mitrović ban has clearly affected them a little bit, although I thought their last two performances against Manchester City and Liverpool were there, even though they didn’t get the results.
“They’ve mixed it up a little bit. They are now playing with a more like for like in [Carlos] Vinícius up front at the moment. He scored the goal at Man City and made Allison make a really good save on Wednesday so I wouldn’t expect that to change for our game on Monday.
“But they’ve really impressed me this season with what they’ve done. They were really good in the Championship last season and they’ve come up and got a really good squad of players. They’ve been better than the previous years they’ve come up, that’s for sure.”
Making a difference
Smith and his coaching staff, including Craig Shakespeare and John Terry, appear to be having a positive influence on the squad, with an upturn in fortunes on the pitch. There will be no let up between now and the end of the season, he assures.
“It’s all consuming but we knew it was,” the manager reflected. “Seven weeks, eight games, we’re thoroughly enjoying it and believe we’re getting a response from the players. I watched the Bournemouth game before I came in and the players looked like they lacked a bit of belief and confidence.
“They looked lethargic. I think we’ve managed to get rid of that. I feel like the players are in a better place now. The performances have shown that - and the attacking intent. That takes work and we’ve been working every day to do that.
“What’s pleasing me the most is the care that the players have shown just for wearing the shirt, but also wanting to play and getting in the team and doing well. And that’s been shown in training.
“There’s been progress. I think you can see confidence within the players now. There’s more belief in the players and that’s going to help their performances, because that’s something that we had to lift straight away. If you do that, you’ll get better performances and better results.
“There’s points available in every game, obviously. But Manchester City was always going to be tough and it’s the only game we haven’t taken points from so far. We’ve got four games left where again we believe we can take points from all four of them.”