Dean Smith hopes his ‘Mr Angry’ act can spark Norwich City into life.
The Canaries resume their Premier League relegation battle at Brighton on Saturday, after nearly three weeks to stew over a painful stoppage time defeat at Leeds.
That sparked a furious response from Smith who revealed on Friday he tore into his players for their efforts at Elland Road.
“It was our concentration levels. That was the biggest thing,” he said. “They've had three or four throw ins in the final third and our concentration levels were miles off it, which allowed them to get into our penalty box, which is something that we’ve been really good on since I've been here.
"Small things sometimes can annoy you. And that certainly did. (Craig Shakespeare) Shakey was as angry as I was on that performance.
"The last 20 minutes we were the better team, but you can't give any team the chances that we gave them in the first half. They could have been out of sight.
“I look back at the Brentford game and I can accept the performance. We've made three mistakes that have cost us the game, but box to box, we were the better team. But at Leeds we wasn't, and it felt like one of those pivotal games where we really needed to go and perform.
"Our arousal for a massive game in a really noisy arena wasn't where it should have been. It's stuff that we've been speaking about and working on. I was annoyed after that game. I was angry, and hopefully the players were as well.”
City’s no show at Leeds had repercussions for their non international contingent.
“The players have to earn their days off. They had a points target and they didn't reach it so it was down to me to decide if they earned the right to get some days off,” said Smith. “You've got to give players some rest. I've always hated this word when people call it an international break.
"It's never been an international break because the internationals who go away are training and playing games. We had nine or 10 outfield players training with us.
"Normally they'll probably see their friends or go away somewhere but I said, no, they had to work hard, and they have worked hard. And we're going into the Brighton game now trying to put things right.”
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