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Each edition includes an in-depth explainer on one of the biggest tactical talking points of the week, as well as a few excerpts from other curiosities I’ve seen in recent matches. There’s also a Q&A section – your chance to reflect on whatever nonsense has been going on lately.
In 2018 – you remember, you were there – there was a news about sean dyche Eating insects. Not figuratively, like some kind of money-bro quote that will only impress people who take Diary of a CEO Seriously: “Any man can be an early bird, but how many of them have the strength to eat the worm,” or something like that. LiterallyThere was a news story about Sean Dyche literally eating worms.
Former Bristol City striker Søren Andersen, who is Danish, went on a podcast – which was Danish – and said, in Danish, that Sean Dyche’s gravelly voice was the result of him eating a lot of worms when the two were together at Ashton Gate. Dyche, in what for me is one of the key cultural moments of modern football discourse, was forced to deny it in several press conferences.
Now, for legal reasons, I must emphasize that Sean Dyche definitely did not eat a lot of bugs. But the fact is, if you search deep within yourself, you’ll realize that you can’t completely rule out the possibility that he did it. You can imagine this with complete ease which is not the case for other managers. Guardiola, Arteta, Howe, Ireola – your brain can’t picture them doing this. Glasner, Maresca, Parker, Herzeler – an imaginative impossibility. Thomas Frank is the only ‘maybe’ I have, and even then, only as a little kid.
Anyway, all this is to say two things. First of all, yes, I agreed to start writing a newsletter because it allows me to deliver neurotic, disorganized introductions that the YouTube algorithm will actively penalize for “not getting to the point,” and secondly, Shawn Dyke is not like other managers.
He took charge this week nottingham forest For the first time (a mere two-hour drive from Cheshire? Where Britain’s largest insect ever discovered? Interesting.) and almost immediately football became a fixture in this country. Twenty games since their last clean sheet, without a win in ten, and facing a Porto team that is unbeaten in 11 this season, Forest won 2–0.
I saw someone tweet, “Money for Ange Postecoglou’s ideas!!!” And I can’t stress enough how little you would care about a ‘penny’ if you got paid an estimated £8 million for 40 days’ work.
Anyway, if you’re wondering how Dyche managed to fix this mess over the course of two training sessions, the answer is ridiculously simple: an immediate return to the 4-2-3-1 they were so comfortable with last season, pressing aggressively in the early stages to generate energy and get the crowd involved, and then immediately dropping into a compact 4-4-2 block after scoring the goal.
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Like, it’s his shape in the minutes before goal: denying time, denying space, forcing Porto to go long into areas where Forest can challenge offensively in the air or contest other balls.
The classic ‘big squeeze’ at a point in the game when everyone still has the energy to do it effectively – and incites the panicked crowd to feel murderous.
And after a few minutes this is the shape: completely changing the questions you ask the opposition and preventing them from reaching the middle of the pitch.
It only feels like ‘negative football’ if you’re not already winning – and suddenly, Porto were invited in a way that immediately dovetailed into Forest’s other notable strength… the direct counter-attack.
They scrape for the ball in the middle of the pitch, it breaks to Elliot Anderson, and he frees Callum Hudson-Odoi into the space left by Porto. It wasn’t just Forrest’s bread-and-butter last season – it was his entire weekly shop, plus little goodies from the farmer’s market on Sundays. They immediately bounced back to beat Bayern, the only team other than Bayern that was unbeaten so far this season.
Premier League Obviously, this will be a big test. At the end of last season it was abundantly clear to Nuno – and to anyone with their eyes open – that Forest’s hatred of possession was the team’s main strength and also the best way to beat them. Before anyone foolishly stuck 50p at Marinakis, he was in the process of making them “more footballing”, but Dyche would, at least initially, represent a return to that style.
In fact, do you want to guess which two teams had the lowest average possession over the last two seasons, if you remove all those who were relegated? Yes, did well: Nottingham Forest (40% and 41%) and Diches Everton (40% and 40%). Yet, this time last week it was a team in freefall – and it’s… uh… not now.
Underestimate Sean Dyche at your peril, my friends. Many people disagree tactically, having been forced to eat their bugs for years.
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