Dean Smith is a self-styled ‘data geek’ and student of human behaviour on a mission to give Norwich City a Premier League edge.

City fans, and players, may still be in the honeymoon phase with their new head coach, but Smith does not conform to any lazy stereotype as an ‘old school’ operator.

The attention to detail extends to altering the matchday routine he inherited, so his squad gather earlier at Carrow Road on Saturday, instead of travelling together on a team coach for their pre-match meal ahead of Wolves.

Smith's penchant for the small details also meant he had detected the underlying trend at Molineux before a recent winning seam of results for Bruno Lage, who replaced Nuno Espirito Santo in the summer.

“I am a bit of a geek, in terms of using data, and their data was really good. It was only a matter of time before they turned those early results around,” he said. “Just looking at our numbers after Southampton, I think we ran five kilometres more than them as a team. Half a kilometre of that was high speed distance as well.

"We're certainly fit enough, we know we can cover the ground, we know we can cover the distance, we've got athletic players. Now it is the football side, and I felt we surrendered the ball a little bit too easy. We need to be a little bit better on the ball than we are at the moment.

“I've been really happy with the staff that I've come into at Norwich, and that includes the analysis department. Really good and thorough, and the same in sports science. We are really happy with the information that we’re getting.

"Obviously within that I've changed a few things that I like, and the way I want things to run a little bit.”

What will not change is the light touch man management style Smith's former Aston Villa assistant, John Terry, alluded to this week, when recounting his advice in dealing with the person as much as the player.

“My role is to learn as much as I can about the players, and finding little nuances that can get the best out of them,” he said. “I spoke to JT in the week and he told me that he'd done a little piece.

"At the stage he was referring to, JT had just gone from playing into a coaching career so he was finding out little tricks of the trade, or the experiences rather, from what I had learned to get the best out of people.

"There are times when you can beat them with the brush, but more often than not it's finding out about that player and how to get the best out of them.

“The human element is a big one that sometimes can get overlooked, maybe by supporters rather than coaches because we see them every day. All players have different sensitivities, different emotions. It's about us as coaches getting to learn about our players to get the best out of them.”

Smith’s former club let a 2-0 lead slip to lose at home to Wolves in mid-October.

“We were probably fortunate to be 2-0 up, and they scored three goals from set pieces 10 minutes from the end in a random spell. A bit of a crazy game and a tough one to take at the time,” he said. “But the ‘we’ now is me and Norwich, and this is a different game.

“What I've said to the players, and what I've been really pleased with, is the attitude and how they approach training and that work ethic. That's been really, really good. That's one of the biggest things that you need if you're going to be successful. If the attitude is anything to go by we've got a really good chance.

"We're at home again and if we can get the supporters behind us it'll be a tough place for them to come.”