What Dyche has to fix at Forestpublished at 15:47 BST
Tom McCoy
BBC Sport journalist
Nottingham
Forest boss Sean Dyche, whose tenure begins against Porto tonight, has already laid down a marker by banning snoods and
hats from training – but there’s plenty more that needs fixing at the City Ground.
Establish
a clear playing style.
Forest thrived last season by defending deep and breaking rapidly on the
counter-attack but their summer recruitment and the ill-fated appointment of
Postecoglou demonstrated the club hierarchy wanted a more possession-focussed
style. That clearly hasn’t paid off and hiring Dyche is an admission they need
to go back to basics.
Organise
the defence. Forest
were a tough nut to crack in 2024-25 but have yet to keep a clean sheet this term
and conceded 11 times from set-pieces in their eight games under Postecoglou.
Given the aerial ability of centre-backs Nikola Milenkovic and Murillo, Dyche
will be confident of improving that dismal record.
Get
Chris Wood scoring.
The New Zealander netted 20 Premier League goals last year, a total bettered by
only three players, but has just two in the current campaign, both coming on
the opening weekend. While he turns 34 in December, Wood enjoyed plenty of
success playing under Dyche at Burnley so could prove a key figure, though he
is doubtful for tonight’s game because of a knee issue.
