Nottingham Forest had lost just one game in their last five matches when Sean Dyche was sacked.
The final straw for owner Evangelos Marinakis was their 0-0 draw with Wolves on Wednesday night, a game in which the Reds had chance after chance but lacked a killer instinct.
It caps an unprecedented campaign at the City Ground as Forest now go about sourcing their fourth manager of the season. Nuno Santo and Ange Postecoglou had both already been sacked before this remarkable development midweek.
Who could replace Dyche at Nottingham Forest?
Well, where do you go from here? Well, thankfully, Marinakis does have an extensive list of contacts within the game and it appears as though he’s putting those to good use again.
According to reports, former Wolves boss Vitor Pereira is the early frontrunner to get the job having previously occupied the dugout at Olympiacos in 2015. The Greek outfit are another side owned by Marinakis and it’s been revealed that talks are already underway to bring him in.
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Sean Dyche was dismissed after the draw against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Who else is in the pipeline? Well, according to journalist Ben Jacobs, Fulham boss Marco Silva is a “longstanding target” for Forest.
That said, when Nuno and Postecoglou left the City Ground, they did not receive much encouragement from the Portuguese over heading to the Midlands.
The good news is that should they wait until the summer to hire a permanent successor to Dyche, he is out of contract at Craven Cottage.
Previous reports this week suggested that Marinakis would be confident of bringing Silva in should an official approach be made.
How Silva compares to Pereira
Well, if the options here are between Silva and Pereira, there is only really one winner.
While Pereira kept Wolves in the Premier League last season, it’s safe to say that in the early stages of 2025/26 he looked way out of his depth.
Of course, the Old Gold lost some key players, notably Matheus Cunha, but the 57-year-old hardly demonstrated the sort of adaptability and fighting instincts needed in the Premier League.
He left Wolves with the Molineux outfit rooted to the bottom of the table. Quite frankly, they looked like one of the worst sides we’ve seen in top-flight history.
Silva, on the other hand, has proven himself over a number of years now. He earned promotion with the Londoners and has since established them as Premier League regulars. They’ve never looked like being in danger of being relegated and sit comfortably in mid-table.
Indeed, after guiding the Cottagers out of the Championship back in 2021/22, they have never finished below 13th place. They even finished tenth during their maiden season back in the big time.
But, why has the Portuguese been able to do that? Well, in the words of Calvin Bassey, he is “one of the best managers in the Premier League”, an idea backed up by the fact that Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United have been linked with managerial moves in recent times.
His style of play would make for an intriguing fit, too. While Pereira struggled to get his ideology across at Wolves, that has been far from the case for Silva.
Throughout his managerial career to date, he has favoured a 4-2-3-1 formation but Fulham have not been a ball-dominant side in the Premier League. They rank 9th for the most possession in the top-flight this season with 51.4%, indicating that while they can offer a degree of control, they are not relentlessly hounding the opposition. In truth, that would be rather hard to do at a club like that. Wolves, for context, average just 43.2% of the ball and Forest average 48.6%.
|
Silva’s Fulham vs Pereira’s Wolves (2024/25) |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Stat |
Fulham |
Wolves |
|
Goals |
54 |
54 |
|
Goals conceded |
54 |
69 |
|
Shots per game |
13.7 |
11.3 |
|
Key passes per game |
10.5 |
8.6 |
|
Possession |
52.3% |
47.9% |
|
Open play goals |
43 |
36 |
|
Set-piece goals |
4 |
9 |
What does make for positive reading, however, is his team’s ability to progress the ball forward and progress it with pace. Across 2023/24 2024/25, only Liverpool bettered their total of progressive passes in England’s top division.
That sounds like music to the ears of many at Forest, not least Morgan Gibbs-White and Elliot Anderson, but also their forward line who, let’s be honest, need better service based on their 0-0 draw with Wolves.
Silva may not be a genuine elite name but that’s not what Forest require. They need stability and judging by the Portuguese’s time in London, he could provide exactly that.
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Nottingham Forest failed to take advantage of key opportunities against Wolverhampton Wanderers last night.
