Personally, I like Smith, he is a decent enough Championship RB, not the best, not the worst, a generally steady 7/10 as said. McNair is getting singled out and scapegoated unfairly at times imho too. Our defence is a bit one paced and because we push up across the back 4 we leave space to exploit, especially vulnerable when the full backs bomb on, we then become vulnerable to the diagonal and our CB’s get pulled wide leaving gaps centrally Lenihan and McNair sometimes end up trying to deal with one on ones in these situations as others scramble back.
McNair, whilst clearly not the greatest defender, seems to get the grief far more. Someone blamed him for something yesterday and it was actually Hackney i think. Our brand exposes our defenders more than we have been used to seeing, It is the risk we take for our overloads when attacking and we have to accept the rough with the smooth with the squad we have. When we lose possession we are vulnerable to teams with forward pace as they draw us forward, often the real problem is a midfielder or forward losing possession from being weak in a tackle or a poorly executed pass to start with, but that rarely gets discussed. We do miss Fry though and he is the better option than McNair when fit nonetheless.