Max Aarons believes he is already reaping the benefits of Dean Smith's coaching methods.

The 21-year-old has been more restricted by Norwich City's new head coach in an attempt to solidify a defence that was leaking goals prior to his arrival last month.

Aarons is naturally forward-thinking as a right-back and is a crucial cog in City's team hoping to achieve top-flight survival this season.

Smith has made tweaks to the way Norwich operate in order to make them a more durable outfit in the Premier League. A lot of those tactical tweaks have been about their work out of possession and intensity of their pressing.

But individual performances, on the whole, have also improved. Aarons feels like he is benefiting from the tuition of Smith.

"Every player has had to tweak a bit," Aarons told the Sunday Times. "I've found that my performances have really improved since he came in.

"He wants the full-backs to be a big part of the attacks but, out of possession, has given me pointers. It's about quicker transitions and when we don't have the ball, about being careful and staying switched on."

A few buzzwords have been used by Smith since his opening press conference as Canaries head coach, those include 'belief', 'confidence' and 'no fear'.

All of those words need to be channelled into City's performances if they are to begin to climb the table and move closer to the return of points required to keep them in the division.

The feeling around the squad is that Smith has created an atmosphere where belief does exist and those currently populating Colney no longer feel as though this is not an impossible task, as Aarons explains.

"The first day he came in," Aarons says, "and said, 'listen, this team absolutely walked the Championship and has underperformed [in the Premier League]. I can see you all now doing so much more. You need to believe in it and in yourselves.'

"That's exactly what we've done since then. We've got the quality and believe that if we can win games and start climbing the table - as we're doing - then we can be a force."