Dyche Era Begins at Nottingham Forest | OneFootball

Another new era dawns at Nottingham Forest as Sean Dyche takes the reigns of the struggling Midlands club for the first time in the Premier League. The former Burnley and Everton boss had been out of work since January after the Toffees sacked him when they were one point above the relegation zone.

An Uphill Battle

Dyche takes over with Forest in 18th place and mired in an early season relegation battle. He’s the third manager for the side after the departures of first Nuno Espiríto Santo and then Ange Postecoglou, who could last only 39 days in the job after failing to win any of his eight matches in charge. The Australian was sacked 17 minutes after Forest’s 3-0 defeat to Chelsea, with Dyche now tasked with stabilising a ship that has been in choppy waters since the start of this campaign. This is the earliest a Premier League club has had three permanent managers in the league’s history.

A trip to fourth place Bournemouth beckons for Forest, as they look to get their season back on track and rediscover the form that saw them grace the Premier League’s top four for much of the 2024-25 season.

Dyche will have to rectify Forest’s and his own form against the Cherries. The Midlands club is on a ten-game winless run against Andoni Iraola’s men dating back to 2014-15. Personally, the 54-year-old has also lost his last three against Bournemouth, with his last Premier League match a 2-0 defeat to the South Coast side back in January.

A Bright Start

Dyche, who returns to the club he left 35-year-ago as an apprentice, has already managed the team he spent three years with as a youngster between 1987 and 1990. He presided over a 2-0 win against Portuguese side FC Porto in the Europa League having been appointed on Tuesday. That timeless victory has already sprouted positivity amongst players and supporters, with the team showing more courage, aggression and fight than during Postecoglou’s abysmal reign.

Penalties from Morgan Gibbs-White and Igor Jesus sealed a first European victory in 30 years for the Midlands side, in turn also giving Forest their first clean sheet in 21 matches, since their 1-0 win over Manchester United in April.

Dyche believes the win against the Portuguese side is just the start for his new side. “Porto was a starting point; now we have to keep delivering and build up that consistent basis so we can maintain consistency over the course of the season, no matter the competition we’re playing in.

“We have a fitness level that we want the players to operate at. We’re balancing things at the moment with the work-to-rest ratio with the games, and that will change over the weeks.

“It’s still stimulating the growth in the players about what we want from them. We delivered it against Porto; now we have to deliver it against Bournemouth.”

Dyche Has Support

After weeks of resignation and anger, the Forest supporters channelled their emotions to passion for their side, and even when Jan Bednarek equalised for the visitors prior to it being disallowed, a wave of positivity towards their new leader was undeniably clear.

It is an opportunity Dyche will be relishing, having never been given the opportunity to play for the club, his job is to get Forest back on track and steer them clear of a relegation zone their squad should be nowhere near to begin with. The adaptation for the Forest players to Dyche’s style of play should be a simpler task, given the Englishman’s tactics are similar to the compact and counterattacking approach donned by Nuno during his tenure at the City Ground, compared to Postecoglou’s completely different, high-tempo tactics.

From mimicking the voice of Forest legend Brian Clough in his first press conference, to standing on the sidelines taking in the club’s anthem of Paul McCartney’s ‘Mull of Kintyre’, a true Premier League character has returned.