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How the Dyche effect can inspire a major resurgence at Nottingham Forest
Sean Dyche’s Nottingham Forest reign got off to the perfect start on Thursday night with a 2-0 home win over Porto in the Europa League.
The victory breathed new life into their campaign after Ange Postecoglou’s chaotic eight-game winless spell in charge.
Here, DAZN News assesses the foundations on which Dyche can build as Forest look to climb out of the Premier League relegation zone.
Dyche's galvanising impact
Postecoglou always felt a strange fit for Forest after being appointed as Nuno Espirito Santo’s successor at the City Ground last month.
His style of football is about all-attack and going gung-ho – a stark contrast to Nuno's counter-attacking defensive approach.
Postecoglou was thrown out after just 39 days having failed to win any of his eight games and in came Dyche earlier this week.
It was fitting that his first game in charge should mark Forest’s first win in Europe for almost 30 years.
Porto are no mugs and sit top of the Portuguese league having dropped just two points this season.
But whatever Dyche, resplendent in Forest tracksuit, said to his players worked a treat as penalties from Morgan Gibbs-White and Igor Jesus secured a deserved win.
The result ended a horrendous 10-game winless streak for Forest, marked their first clean sheet since April, and suggested Dyche is the right man to engineer a much-needed revival.
He proved that when he arrived at Everton at a time of crisis and the win against Porto suggested he is the perfect fit for Forest.
His name was chanted by the City Ground faithful and he said afterwards: “It is nice when they support you from the off.
“If they can accept me and my staff, that’s got to be a bonus and hopefully it will fast-track the feeling around the ground.”
Gibbs-White is a class act
Tottenham were sniffing around the England midfielder this summer but Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis broke the bank to hand his master craftsman a new, lucrative three-year deal. And with good reason.
Gibbs-White helped Forest finish seventh last season and qualify for Europe – and he can be the man who helps fire them up the table this time around.
After helping Forest to victory over Porto, Gibbs-White hinted at a new-found happiness under Dyche following Postecoglou’s disastrous reign.
“I can finally breathe tonight,” the Reds playmaker told TNT Sport.
“It has been a difficult couple of months with all the changes and the bad performances, so it was good to get our first win in eight or nine games.
“We are delighted to get the three points and I want to thank the fans for sticking by us.
“The gaffer said when he came in that last season we had a real identity, and he wants to build on top of that. I am just delighted that the boys got the three points and the win.
“You can feel the morale. It feels a lot more positive and it needs to stay like that.
“That's credit to the manager. He has instilled that in us, and we have to keep up that mentality.”
The City Ground effect
Although Dyche’s first Premier League takes place at Bournemouth on Sunday, he has already made himself at home as Nottingham Forest boss.
The former Burnley and Everton boss lives in the city and spent three years at the club as a trainee under legendary Forest boss Brian Clough.
Dyche’s two assistants Steve Stone and Ian Woan were hugely popular players at the club and the reception they enjoyed before the Porto game confirmed that Forest fans are already onside with the new regime.
There is a special atmosphere at the City Ground when things are going well and Dyche will look to continue to harness that feelgood factor in his next home game against Manchester United on November 1.
But first up is a trip to the south coast to face high-flying Bournemouth on Sunday.
It is a tough task but, after cutting Porto down to size on Thursday, Dyche’s men will go there with renewed self-belief.
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