Sean Dyche insisted he had no doubts over becoming Nottingham Forest’s third permanent head coach in 43 days despite the club’s unstable season to date.
Dyche arrived at the City Ground on Tuesday, three days after Ange Postecoglou was sacked less than six weeks after his appointment, tasked with turning around a club which has won just three of its last 19 games stretching back to last season.
The ex-Burnley and Everton boss has joined on a two-year contract and said owner Evangelos Marinakis has made clear stabilising the club – and returning it to winning ways – will be only the start of his role.
“There was no doubt in taking the role,” he said. “I was out of a job and wasn’t really part of it – I got a call whether I’d speak to them, and you’re pretty much thinking it’s a yes before you speak to the club.
“It’s not about the past. I don’t question another manager, that’s not my style. The club asked me to imprint my way of working on the club, and hopefully a successful way of working.
“[Marinakis] wants it to stabilise first. He’s been around football for a long time, with Olympiakos and here. Stability is the next move but it’s not an acceptability for the whole run of being Nottm Forest manager.
“I always say to players, don’t accept ‘alrightness’. That doesn’t achieve anything. You should be wanting more as a football player or manager. The first situation is to stabilise the club though.
“Then we move it forward, but it needs the basics put back into the team first – they’ve just lost sight of that a little bit.
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“He wouldn’t do all this if it wasn’t for wanting more. But if you look at the back end of last season, as I said he keeps up with the stats and facts, and it was a tough run.
“There’s work to be done, he’s aware of that. And he wants me to do it.”
Dyche’s appointment marks a full-circle career span for the 54-year-old, who began in the Forest academy as a teenager in 1987 but left three years later without making a single appearance for the club.
He has brought along several backroom staff with links to the club themselves, in Ian Woan, Steve Stone, Billy Mercer and Tony Loughlan, and said there was an added meaning to their involvement as the club’s custodians given their history at the City Ground.
“I was explaining on our own TV channel yesterday I’ve got a longer history with the club as an apprentice which people may not know, back in 1987,” he said.
Nottingham Forest legend Martin O’Neill believes his former club have made the right decision in appointing
Dyche as their new head coach
“When you start off in those days, you never think about something like this – you’re running down the River Trent with the voice of Brian Clough in earshot, let’s say, and the legends who played for the club at that time.
“At that point you just want to put the shirt on and to go around full circle and be here as manager is quite big for me and my staff.
“We’ve all been touched by Nottingham Forest, my staff have a deeper history than me but it’s fast forward and things have changed a lot, but I take a lot of pride in being named as manager.
“My history here doesn’t give me a divine right. If I’m not getting the results, the fans won’t want me.
“I have to tell that story because I came through here as a kid, and I never got to wear the shirt. Now I can, so it does mean more to me.”
‘People want us to play like Spain – it’s not that easy’
Dyche has in the past been accused of playing a long-ball brand of football, but spoke passionately in defence of his methods.
Instead, he pointed to the rise in long balls, long throw-ins and goals from set-pieces – and name checked Arsenal’s double in their 4-0 win over Atletico Madrid on Tuesday night – as a vindication of the style he champions.
“If you can play forwards, why not. [Forest] had great success here last season playing forwards quickly, so why would you change it?
“You’ve seen this season the way the stats are changing, more longer balls for the first time in 10 years – more longer passes, more long balls.
“A couple of set-piece goals last night for Arsenal and everyone’s raving – and why wouldn’t you? I’ve always viewed football how I think is correct. I’ve been put in many boxes, I’m not bothered about that.
“I’ve never tried to talk my way out of one or hide behind what I think is effective. It’s just when it comes round your way a bit, people think: ‘Oh, that’s what he was doing’.
“People point at me telling you we’re going to play like Spain when they won the World Cup – but it’s not that easy. You’ve still got to penetrate, score goals and win.
“How many different ways can we do that? We’ve got to build on the style they found to be successful and alter it slightly to open up and use some of the skill level of the players slightly differently.
“We took a lot of feedback from the players, they’re very proud of what they did last season and the way they did it, and rightly so. Can we do that slightly differently but keep the winning mentality?
“It’s going to be a work in progress, you can’t just flick a switch. They’ve got it in them, they’ve already shown it.”
Analysis: Dyche already instilling confidence in new players
Dyche injected fun into his second training session as head coach at Nottingham Forest as they prepare to face Porto in the Europa League
Sky Sports News’ Anton Toloui at the City Ground:
“Unsurprisingly, the words like ‘simplicity’ and ‘basics’ came up when Sean Dyche was talking about what he’s been working on.
“It was fascinating watching training today. He came out there with smiles on the faces, getting the players energetic and amped up – I think his priority is making the players feel 10ft tall.
“This is a team which hasn’t won since the opening day of the season, so confidence is low. Dyche has come in and tried to simplify things, remind the players that this is a good squad, but but he did want to emphasise there’s more of an appreciation of a Sean Dyche-style nowadays.
“We’re all talking about long balls and set-pieces, and that’s something Forest have struggled with massively recently, especially under Ange Postecoglou – with 11 of the 18 goals conceded under him coming from them.
“Of the players he knows best in the Forest squad, Chris Wood has missed training today so I doubt he’ll be rushed back to play Porto on Thursday.
“That starts a tough run of games for Dyche and Forest, they’ve got high-flying Bournemouth coming up, then Manchester United in the Premier League as well as Leeds and Liverpool, and another European game with Sturm Graz.”
