How Sean Dyche turned the Nottingham Forest dressing room against him: The tirade that spelled the end, exhausting training that left squad knackered before matches, the players he made clear he doesn’t rate, board’s mistakes and who’s next on list

It was shortly after Nottingham Forest were knocked out of the FA Cup on penalties by Wrexham that key figures in the squad started to lose patience with Sean Dyche.

Last season, Forest had reached the semi-finals under Nuno Espirito Santo, and this time around they fell at the first hurdle against a Championship club. Grumpy at the outcome and at their own performances, several members of the squad were then stunned to hear Dyche pin the blame for the result entirely on them.

‘They showed their hand and won’t be knocking on my door saying, “Why aren’t I playing?” again, that’s for sure, that first-half group,’ Dyche raged, in reference to his fringe players. ‘I could have taken all of them off (at half-time). You have to look in the mirror because that’s unacceptable to the badge.’

Versions of that rant have been used by many a coach down the years and not so long ago, players would probably have shrugged it off. These are different times, though. This rant led directly to Dyche driving his 4×4 back into the City Ground shortly after 11pm on Wednesday. He had seemed resigned to his fate after the 0-0 draw with Wolves and by 12.31am on Thursday he had been sacked.

After Wrexham there was a view in the dressing room that, instead of calling out his players, Dyche might do well to look a little closer to home. After all, some of them reasoned, he was all too willing to take credit when Forest did well.

The Wrexham result made it five defeats in six and after that, even though form picked up again, something in the squad/manager dynamic had snapped. Dyche’s sacking, with Forest three points above the relegation zone and now looking for a Premier League record fourth permanent manager this season, is the final result.

The players were particularly shocked at Dyche’s words after the FA Cup exit at Wrexham

Concerns about training and tactics

Players will put up with most things if they are part of a winning team. When they are not, they start to question their environment a little more. During that poor run in December and early January, Forest players took a closer look behind the curtain and too many did not like what they saw. But they need to look at themselves, too. Right now, it seems too many of these players blame Forest’s struggles on everyone but themselves.

They did not mind Dyche’s direct football at the start. His uncomplicated manner was an antidote to Ange Postecoglou’s disastrous 39-day spell and results were improving, with the 3-0 win over Tottenham at the City Ground on December 14 the high-water mark.

Yet when results started to turn, players started to wonder whether former Burnley and Everton boss Dyche had anything more in his locker. There was a sense that during training sessions far too much emphasis was placed on running and other physical drills, above working with the ball. Some even felt tired going into matches.

Certain games set alarm bells ringing even more loudly. Either side of New Year, Forest lost at home to Everton and were then brushed aside at Aston Villa. Against Everton, their attacking play lacked imagination, with cross after cross flung into the box, where the visitors’ tall centre backs were waiting to head them clear.

At Villa, the heat map indicated that Elliot Anderson spent more time in his own penalty area than in any other part of the pitch, as he and Morgan Gibbs-White were deployed as midfield workhorses in a 4-5-1. Dyche blamed that 3-1 defeat on individual errors but it was seriously grim viewing.

Anderson and Gibbs-White are senior England internationals. Anderson is likely to start England’s opening game at the World Cup and could move for close to £100million this summer. Gibbs-White was valued at £70m 12 months ago, while centre back Murillo is courted by numerous wealthier clubs, among them Manchester United.

These players want to reach the top and while they are responsible for their own performances, it would be understandable if they had wondered whether Dyche’s football would slow their progress.

Dyche would counter that Gibbs-White has scored seven times in 24 matches for him but the 26-year-old’s reaction to being substituted at Elland Road on February 6 suggested all may not be well between the pair.

Elliot Anderson, who could command £100million in the transfer market this summer, has been inhibited by a limited tactical style

Morgan Gibbs-White’s reaction to being substituted at Elland Road on February 6 suggested all may not be well between him and Dyche

The team selection at Leeds was baffling in another 3-1 defeat. With Neco Williams suspended and Murillo injured, Dyche chose to use rookie centre half Zach Abbott at right back instead of giving a full debut to left back Luca Netz, signed that week from Borussia Monchengladbach. That forced Ola Aina to switch flanks.

Dyche’s reasoning was that Netz had been in the building barely 48 hours. Yet he arrived with 113 appearances at the age of just 22 in the Bundesliga – hardly park football. 

Netz’s exclusion uncovered another issue where Dyche and his employers were always going to differ.

Transfers and recruitment

As Leeds mauled Dyche’s team, Evangelos Marinakis’ global head of football cut a worried figure in the posh seats at Elland Road.

Edu, the former Arsenal player and sporting director, was hired to great fanfare last summer. Next to him was long-time Marinakis loyalist George Syrianos, looking anxious as he fiddled with his phone. Both were part of a recruitment drive that saw Forest spend more than Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain last summer, but produced only one first-team regular – Igor Jesus. And if Chris Wood had been fit, he would have started ahead of the Brazilian.

Dyche is not the type to duel openly with his bosses over transfers as Nuno did – the Portuguese falling out spectacularly with Edu – yet he did not get the players he wanted in January.

He coveted powerful, battle-hardened Premier League players to boost Forest’s fight for survival, like his former pupil Dwight McNeil, Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope and Brighton pair Jack Hinshelwood and Lewis Dunk.

None of those four arrived. Instead, Forest signed Netz and Manchester City’s back-up goalkeeper Stefan Ortega, as well as Napoli forward Lorenzo Lucca on loan.

Dyche wanted reinforcements in January that fitted his style – such as his former Burnley and Everton pupil Dwight McNeil

Versatile Brighton man Jack Hinshelwood (right) was also on Dyche’s target list 

Instead, Forest brought in 6ft 7in striker Lorenzo ‘Pizza Crouch’ Lucca (left) and German left back Luca Netz (right)

At 6ft 7in and nicknamed ‘Pizza Crouch’, Lucca should be made to measure for Dyche’s style of football and scored on his debut. But he struggled desperately against Wolves. Wood, last season’s top scorer, never played for Dyche here arrived due to a serious knee injury. That is rotten luck.

Daily Mail Sport understands there were certain players in the squad Dyche simply did not rate, among them winger Dilane Bakwa and centre back Jair Cunha, who cost more than £40million between them. While these are early days, Netz is not thought to have blown his manager’s socks off either.

Forest’s mistakes

The bigger issue for Forest is this: Dyche is merely a symptom of their problems, not the cause. In his four months at the City Ground, Dyche has been Dyche: a bristling, blokeish character who understands the English game and plays pragmatic football. 

Wingers whose minds wander when the opposition have the ball, or centre backs who value technique alongside physique, are never going to be his cup of tea. So if Marinakis and his allies have been surprised by how their third manager of the season has approached the task, they really shouldn’t have been. It would be totally wrong to pin all the blame on Dyche.

An old joke springs to mind, where someone asks a passer-by for directions and is told: ‘I wouldn’t have started from here.’ When he tried to chart Forest’s route to the top, Marinakis would never have imagined Dyche appearing even briefly on the journey, even though broadly speaking the two men are thought to get on well.

There is a constant battle for Marinakis’ ear at Forest and in the post-Postecoglou meltdown, Dyche’s appointment was championed by one group of advisors against the better judgement of another.

In a recent supporters’ trust meeting, Forest chairman Nicholas Randall was hugely complimentary towards Dyche. Not everyone feels the same way.

What did Forest’s board really expect when replacing Ange Postecoglou (left) with Dyche?

Marco Silva, who was appointed Olympiacos boss by Evangelos Marinakis in 2015, will be high on Forest’s list, as will the man Silva replaced in the Greek capital, ex-Wolves man Vitor Pereira

There is one thing they can all surely agree on. Even though Forest limped to the finishing line last season, they would still have been better off keeping Nuno Espirito Santo in the dugout. Nobody, not least Nuno himself, emerged with any credit from the summer chaos that saw him sacked after only three games.

If only Forest chiefs had found a way of getting the key people in a room and knocking heads together to get Forest through the season. It might not have reached the heights of last year, but surely it would not have ended up here.

Who could come next? Fulham manager Marco Silva is admired greatly but has probably set his sights higher. Vitor Pereira, who did very well in his first season at Wolves but appallingly in his second, is another worth keeping an eye on. Relegation would change that shortlist immediately.

It may get worse before it gets better. And if Nuno keeps West Ham up at Forest’s expense, that would be the worst outcome of all.