Norwich City boss Dean Smith to use knowledge of Aston Villa players to ‘exploit’ their weaknesses

Norwich City manager and former Aston Villa head coach Dean Smith believes his knowledge of a lot of the Villa squad can work as an advantage for the Canaries when they visit Villa Park on Saturday.

Aside from the more recent additions such as Lucas Digne who will be unavailable through injury and Philippe Coutinho - the team is very much a ‘Dean Smith team,’ if you will.

He brought the majority of the players to the club including record signing and former Canaries favourite, Emiliano Buendia.

The former Villa boss alluded to the fact he knows a lot of the current playing squad at Villa Park ‘intimately’ and is hoping that can work in his side’s favour in the preparation and during saturday’s match-up.

“We’re looking to exploit different areas on the pitch,” Smith explained, when asked if his knowledge of the claret and blue will help.

“We’ve got to play to our strengths.

“I know the players at Villa intimately - I brought a lot of them into the football club. Coutinho will probably play.

“Our job is to find their weaknesses and exploit them.”

It certainly didn’t help earlier in the campaign when Villa ran out 2-0 winners in the reverse fixture thanks but with both sides more desperate than ever for three points this time around, it may be a different story.

Regardless of what happens on Saturday, Smith is set to receive a warm welcome back to B6 with fans planning to unveil a banner thanking the former boss for his time with the club.

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