Predicting Sean Dyche’s first five Nottingham Forest fixtures as Liverpool and Man United clashes loom

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Nottingham Forest have appointed Sean Dyche as their new manager, taking them to three bosses for the season after sacking Nuno Espirito Santo and Ange Postecoglou already after a poor start to the Premier League.

Nuno Espírito Santo led Nottingham Forest to seventh place in the Premier League table last season, ensuring Europa League football and a first continental campaign in 30 years.

However, despite winning his opening game against Brentford, the club have yet to win a game since after Nuno was sacked by Forest in early September. Ange Postecoglou replaced Nuno as boss at the City Ground, but his ill-fated 39-day spell saw Forest fail to win in eight games, scoring just one goal in the Premier League in that time.

Now Sean Dyche has been appointed as Nottingham Forest gaffer, but with Forest in the bottom three of the table, he’ll need to get them firing straight away. TBR Football predicts how the English boss will fare in his opening five Premier League games.

Predicting Sean Dyche’s opening home and away games for Nottingham Forest

To get the ball rolling, Sean Dyche opens his Forest account away at Bournemouth on Sunday. It’s as tricky a game as anyone could ask for, in reality. The Cherries have only lost once all season, remaining unbeaten at the Vitality Stadium, and they’ve scored 14 in eight games.

With Antoine Semenyo starring for Bournemouth this season and Dyche perhaps not having enough time to implement his own ideas, that could well be a loss for the Tricky Trees.

Dyche’s first game at the City Ground is against Manchester United. Earlier in the campaign, that would perhaps have been quite an easy task with Ruben Amorim faltering at United earlier in the season.

However, United have since won three of their last four Premier League games including a famous win against Liverpool at Anfield – and if they can see off Brighton on Saturday, they’ll head to Forest smelling blood.

How Sean Dyche will fare in his first five games for Nottingham Forest

Next up after United are Leeds United. On paper, this is Dyche’s easiest game of the five he’s set to face, though he has only won one game in five against the Whites.

The caveat to that is that Leeds boss Daniel Farke has yet to beat Dyche in the Premier League in three attempts, and with Leeds losing against Burnley last time out, they may be sketchy on their travels.

The toughest game on paper for Dyche follows that, with a trip to Anfield to face Liverpool. As title challengers, the Reds’ ground is a fortress even though United won there on Sunday.

However, Forest were the last side to beat them at Anfield in September 2024 until Amorim’s side took a 2-1 win, and with Dyche ending Liverpool’s 68-game unbeaten run at home in the league for Burnley in 2021, there is previous history for him to do well.

Ending that run is a home game against Brighton. Forest beat the Seagulls 7-0 there last season, and Dyche actually has a decent record against them in the Premier League.

With four wins, seven draws and just three losses against Brighton, Dyche should have got his squad up to scratch by this point and a win could well be on the cards.