Dean Smith is convinced Norwich City’s ‘softly softly’ approach with headline signing Gabriel Sara will pay off.

Smith’s desire to ease the Brazilian into the mix, after completing his recovery from an ankle injury following his summer move from Sao Paulo, could bring him a second start on Tuesday against Bournemouth.

The attacking midfielder made his full debut in the first round penalty shoot out win over Birmingham, but it is fellow South American import Marcelino Nunez who has caught the eye in Championship combat.

Nunez’s quality in possession, his mastery from free kicks and his infectious personality have all proved a hit with new team mates and fans alike.

But Smith is confident Sara will make a similar impact.

“We don't want to give too much away with the team, but Gabby obviously needs minutes,” he said. “When we signed him, we knew that would be the case and he was a player coming back from injury, but he has started to get better and better in training.

"We saw against Birmingham the other week he needed the minutes, and he'll need them in this game as well. When we signed Gabby and Marcelino (Nunez) we felt both would be quick to adapt.

“The biggest difference is Nunez has been playing games before he arrived, whereas Gabby has been out for quite a while after an operation, so he was always going to have to build up his training minutes and his training load, and then his match minutes.

"He's looking really good on the training ground at the moment, which is good. And we'll get him into more match situations.”

Fit-again duo Sam Byram and Adam Idah also look set for League Cup action, after sitting out the early part of the league campaign.

Byram picked up a thigh issue early in pre-season while Idah needed to have fluid removed from his knee when he stepped up his summer comeback.

“We will certainly be using the squad again, and I think Bournemouth will do the same as well,” said Smith. “We want all the players pushing each other and to get in an equal amount of minutes where you can. We'll be looking to change things around.

“Sam trained over the weekend and on Monday so I expect him to be in the line up. He gives you a lot of options, including the option of three at the back with our left back situation at the moment. Sam allows us to fill those right, left and central positions in a three.

“Adam is another who has trained with us in the last few days. I don't believe I would start him, because I don't think he'd be ready for that. But he'd be ready to come on for minutes. The good news is the swelling on his knee has gone down now as well.”

Fellow striker Teemu Pukki sat out both recent Championship home wins after suffering a bruised foot, but Josh Sargent’s goalscoring impact underlined Smith has other frontline options to ease the load on Pukki. Plus he hopes a growing threat at set pieces.

“It is a great problem to have. One I wanted,” he said. “Ever since I got to the club I felt that we needed to ease the burden on Teemu. There are players here who are more than capable of scoring goals.

"We haven't got enough from different areas of the team and it's something that we're certainly working on. I think we've had some really good opportunities from set pieces that we haven't taken. We need to improve on that as well.

“The players are starting to grasp the principles of what Alan (Russell, set piece coach) wants. We were very unfortunate the first game (at Cardiff) when Kenny (McLean) hits the crossbar with another really good routine.

“We've had some free headers in the other games and I said before Friday’s game we were only second to Millwall in first contacts in the opposition box, which is really good as well. We're certainly improving, but we want to get goals. That's the only way you'll be judged at the end of the day.”

Bournemouth were hammered 6-0 at this same stage of the competition last season, and head to Norfolk on the back of Premier League defeats to Manchester City and Arsenal, with Liverpool up next.

“This’ll be a good test,” said Smith. “It’s been a real tough start for them. They beat (Aston) Villa in the first game and then they played Manchester City and Arsenal, so tough, but it is a really good squad and a really good manager.”