Dean Smith has countered claims that Norwich City's midfield failed to perform against Brentford.

The City engine room, comprising of Mathias Normann, Billy Gilmour and Kenny McLean, were subjected to some scrutiny from some supporters who felt their individual and collective performances were under par during the 3-1 defeat.

But City's boss rejects those criticisms and felt his team were the better side in that particular area of the pitch.

"If you look at the midfield area, I thought that, from box to box, we were the better team. Unfortunately, it's in the boxes where the results are.

"That's where we got found out on the day," Smith said.

After the game, Smith said Sunday would be the day to analyse the performance and offer his squad a few home truths. Speaking ahead of the Chelsea fixture tonight, he revealed he elected to cancel that meeting to ensure the frustrations from the loss didn't linger among the squad.

"We came in Sunday and I decided to cancel the meeting," he said. "Sometimes you just get the feeling that it wasn't the right time. It wasn't the right time to sit down and analyse the Brentford game.

"Individual errors happen in games and the players knew. They didn't need me to go on about it because then it just lingers. We quickly moved on to the Chelsea game because there wasn't a lot we did wrong beyond three or four individual mistakes."

The Pink Un: Mathias Normann made up Norwich City's midfield trio against Brentford.Mathias Normann made up Norwich City's midfield trio against Brentford. (Image: ©Focus Images Limited www.focus-images.co.uk +44 7813 022858)

Norwich will be without Gilmour, who is ineligible to face his parent club, but are boosted by the return of Lukas Rupp, who missed Saturday's game through fatigue rather than injury.

For Smith, the German's return is a welcome lift in that area of the pitch.

"It was no injury, he was just fatigued from the Liverpool game. It was the first game he had for a while and played 75 minutes.

"He asked to come off in that game, even though he'd just scored and he just hadn't recovered well enough. He is fit and available now.

"Obviously Billy (Gilmour) can't play with it being his parent club so having the likes of Lukas pushing for starts and we've got Lungi back as well, which is really good."