Dyche in the Dugout: A Nottingham Forest European Preview

Nottingham Forest vs FC Porto Preview

This god-forsaken club will never run out of things for me to write about, will they?

Whether it's owners allegedly stealing FA Cup trophies from the stadium, new star signings failing eye tests, various eyebrow-raising tweets or somehow managing to end up playing in a European competition, Nottingham Forest will never, ever have a dull day at the office. There's always some sort of bullshittery to be had.

Going into this season and out of last season, the mood around The City Ground was extraordinarily high. We didn't quite maintain a push for Champions League football, but still managed to qualify for the Conference League in what was still a height deemed dizzying for a side that had battled relegation the previous two years, and had only come up to the Premier League for the first time in over two decades the year before that.

And then, to make matters more comedic, we enjoyed a summer full of secret release clauses, bold statements, a big old crop of shiny new recruits and Steve Parish forgetting his Microsoft Outlook password, which saw Forest end up getting into the Europa League at Crystal Palace's expense.

Flash forward to the end of October, and the season has been... interesting, to say the least.

pic.twitter.com/KT4UbKQ3QX

— Alex 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇳🇱 (@AO1865) October 22, 2025

After Nuno Espirito Santo's fallout with those upstairs, Ange Postecoglou came in to try and stamp a brand of attacking, gun-ho football through the Red's ranks that, frankly, didn't work out.

After quite literally the worst start to a managerial reign, results-wise, ever seen at Nottingham Forest and the shortest managerial stint in Premier League history (that ended in a sacking), Evangelos Marinakis has turned to a few familiar faces in a bid to return Forest to the hard-to-beat nature that brought so much success last season.

Yes, the gravelly tones and affable nature of one Sean Dyche have returned to the Premier League, and with the appointment comes a myriad of questions, speculation, adoration and plenty more buzzwords that I cannot be bothered to list, joined by club heroes Steve Stone and Ian Woan. And, of course, a baptism of fire by way of a Europa League clash with an FC Porto team that have only conceded twice all season long. Oh the joys.

The Band Is Back Together

Now I wasn't around to see the days of Nottingham Forest when Stone and Woan were part of the playing structure, but I'm reliably informed that this is sort of the equivalent of one of our current academy lads taking on the mantle of manager, assisted by Ryan Yates and Brennan Johnson or along those lines in 2050-something.

One thing that was felt in sore lacking with Ange Postecoglou as part of the team was any bid to try and resonate with the supporters and get them onside. In fairness, it could be said that he didn't have enough time (39 days) to actually make an impact, but his dealings with the media had a feeling around them that he was doing the club a favour by being here and mainly talking about himself and his past achievements (which could easily have been a bid to get the talking away from the players, which is credible, but often came across un-favourably in snippets).

I’ve not seen so much joy and relief on so many faces since then Chilean miners all got winched to safety. My boys. They are free… #NFFC https://t.co/J9aX5tprZq

— Tom (@WiggumCharm) October 21, 2025

One of the first things that Dyche stated in his first few interviews was that 'no manager is bigger than this badge', though quite rightly stating that one Brian Clough could potentially be excused on that front.

The response to that has been very positive. One thing that Steve Cooper and Nuno Santo had in common is that they got the fans pulling in their direction, which only helped add to the noise and spirit famously felt throughout those City Ground seats. Even though Ange wasn't many people's first choice to replace Santo, we still all wanted him to succeed in charge because why would we not? But he, at times, felt very difficult to root for.

Dyche has always been a likeable character, but it now feels that we have a man in the dugout who understands the club and knows what we need at this moment in time. After all, he was a part of our academy back in the day under Clough himself, and is a frequent in the Nottingham city scene that we all know so well.

Feels like they were born to be manager and captain together at Nottingham Forest at some point pic.twitter.com/0MB9r3u4XG

— Callum Castel (@CallumCastel7) October 22, 2025

The transition from Nuno's style of play at Forest to the one Ange wanted to deploy was so different that it left metaphorical whiplash throughout The City Ground, both on and off the pitch. We went from a team built on being notoriously hard to beat (less so from April onwards, anyway) to one that did away with set-piece fortitude and defensive nous, in favour of hoping we could just out-score everyone we played. And we never did.

There were definitely flickers of that potentially working out. To Ange's credit, the first half against Betis saw Forest metamorphasise into prime Barcelona, and the first-half displays showed plenty of signs of life in other games as well. But it just seemed unsustainable when the second half began in these choice affairs.

Under Dyche, Forest will potentially go back to basics under a manager famed for his rock-solid Burnley side of the past, and have given him a team recently stocked with over £100m of talent and his old flame Chris Wood. What is yet to come might not be pretty, but the fans are already resonating well with Dyche as a person, and his tactics are more closely aligned with what made Forest do so well last season. Unless Dyche has recently been visited by three tactical ghosts and will try and have Forest playing beautiful tiki-taka stuff over the course of his reign.

One thing is for certain, and that is that it will be traditionally 'box office' in one way or another.

Up First: Porto

Ah, bollocks.

11 games. 10 wins. 2 goals conceded. A trip to The City Ground up next. That is the tale of the tape in terms of the opponent lying in front of Dyche and his new colleagues this evening. Not exactly a simple start.

Tonight will likely be the toughest fixture Nottingham Forest have to face with in their Europa League League Phase games. Under Francesco Farioli, Porto have been utterly brilliant in almost every regard.

Gotta back em from minute 1 all night tonight, make it hell for Porto, their fans are gonna be up for it so don’t sit there on your hands all night

You want a team that’s fired up, you gotta be fired up yourself.

— JS🪵 (@jaacknffc) October 23, 2025

Samu, the Spanish striker who was on the cusp of a move to Chelsea once-upon-a-time, has been banging the goals in for fun and young Rodrigo Mora has been busy outsting himself as one of the better young talents that Europe has to offer. Furthermore, Jan Bednarek has genuinely been one of the best centre-backs in Europe this season, and any manager who can do that after seeing his Southampton days near the end deserves serious credit.

For Dyche, this will be a tough test. Yes, 7 years in sports writing and a degree in journalism can cook up valuable insights such as that. But more to the point of this match being difficult for Forest, it will certainly spell out plenty of interesting points of opportunity for the new man in charge in Nottingham.

Everyone is expecting Forest to return to more rigid, defensive ways under Sean Dyche, so how about your first game being against a side that is averaging about three goals a game this season? We all are interested to see how Forest will set up their attacks with a defensively-known coach leading the way, so your first test is trying to find goals against the best defence in Europe at the moment, Mr Dyche.

“This badge is bigger than me, that's for sure.
⁰“So let me just do my bit as the best I can and with my style from the players to correct the current situation.

“If we can move it forward in style, that'd be brilliant. And as long as we can move it forward, as long as we can… pic.twitter.com/a1yi1JUjKM

— Max Scott (@maxbscott) October 22, 2025

Even if Forest lose tonight, they can come away with plenty of credit to their names if the performance beckons it. If they manage to take a result from the game, then Sean Dyche will be fast-tracked into the good books of the supporters at a break-neck pace as Porto have only failed to win one game all season (against Benfica).

I'm not a mind-reader, but I would hazard a guess at the main priority for Forest this evening is just trying to be as rock-solid as possible. He hasn't had long to prepare and the game is a very tough one, so it can be something of a free hit for Dyche if it isn't a winning/drawing start, but we're all hoping that the signs are shown and the seeds sown of a Forest side that can keep themselves safe through their forthcoming fixtures. After looking loose for the most part under Postecoglou, I think that's what the majority of us are mainly after tonight - good signs.

Well it's what I want at minimum anyway. It might not be what you want. Who am I to tell you otherwise? Think freely and call me horrible things on Twitter if you like.

Dyche, Stone and Woan all back at Forest. Heritage. pic.twitter.com/jO4CbjTSQ6

— Louis Wheeldon (@LouisWheeldonNS) October 21, 2025