Dean Smith admitted he had to switch to ‘damage limitation’ after already-relegated Norwich City slumped to a 3-0 deficit at half-time against West Ham.
Said Benrahma’s brace sandwiched Michail Antonio’s easy finish and the City boss responded by replacing Pierre Lees-Melou and Milot Rashica with Lukas Rupp and youngster Tony Springett.
Manuel Lanzini completed the 4-0 rout of the Premier League’s bottom team at an unhappy Carrow Road in the 65th minute, as boos featured throughout a 10th defeat in 12 games.
“I thought we got some motivation into them in the second half, I thought it was a better performance - although at 3-0 down against West Ham it has to become damage limitation,” Smith said.
“I thought we did limit them but first half, we know we’re in the Championship next season but if you are giving away goals like that, it’s hard to come back from that, poor goals to give away.
“If you give teams at this level a two-goal head start, it’s really tough.”
Tim Krul couldn’t keep out an early opener from Benrahma that had taken a big deflection off Max Aarons but then failed to clear the danger at the feet of Antonio in the 31st minute, as a cruel deflection landed kindly for the striker with skipper Grant Hanley left on his backside.
Smith added: “Tim’s our most experienced Premier League player here, he knows when he has made mistakes and he will hold his hands up when we debrief.”
Very brief hope of a fightback arrived three minutes after the restart after Lukasz Fabianski had flapped at a Kieran Dowell corner but Sam Byram’s first goal for over six years was ruled out correctly by VAR for handball.
“That’s the letter of the law,” the Canaries chief continued. “It’s really harsh for Sam because he probably deserved that goal. He’s been quite aggressive in the opposition box and looked quite likely to score a few times this season.
“But the letter of the law is that if it touches any part of the hand [it’s disallowed]. The bizarre thing is, he could pass to somebody and they could score, but he can’t, but that’s the letter of the law.”
Lanzini’s penalty made the final stages something of an abject procession, after Jacob Sorensen had handled in an aerial duel with Craig Dawson – but Smith wasn’t happy with the VAR decision, after referee Robert Jones had reassessed on the pitch-side screen.
He simply said, sarcastically: “It looks really clear and obvious, doesn’t it?”
The slimmest of silver linings was provided by an energetic effort on the left wing from 19-year-old Springett, as the academy product made his professional debut.
Smith concluded: “Really pleased for him because he’s a great kid, works extremely hard in training, bundles of energy and I thought he did well when he came on.”
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