New Era Under Dyche As Reds Host Porto

Well, you couldn’t write this kind of script, could you? As Nottingham Forest prepare to welcome unbeaten Portuguese giants, FC Porto to the City Ground, the game also marks the third different management team in the home dug-out.

Having begun the season with Nuno Espirito Santo leading the club for the first three games, he would find himself replaced by Ange Postecoglou as the Reds prepare for a long-awaited, eagerly anticipated, return to European football.

For Postecoglou though, and despite the entertaining draw with Real Betis, his time at the helm was a short-lived one to say the least; just eight matches in charge, drawing two and losing six, prompting owner, Evangelos Marinakis, to swing his deadly axe.

Now it’s the turn of a returning son, Sean Dyche (1987-1990, youth player, zero first team appearances), ably flanked by two favourites of the City Ground, Steve Stone (1989-1999, youth player, 229 first team appearances) and Ian Woan (1990-2000, 248 appearances), and with it a baptism of fire when, following just a couple of days with the playing staff, will take on the two-time European Cup winners.

So, who are these Blue & White ‘Dragões,’ led by an unknown manager in Francesco Farioli; with Forest winless in their last ten games, Porto’s form to start the season couldn’t be any more of a polar opposite.

An unbeaten start to the Primeira Liga season, topping the table with seven wins and a draw from their eight league games, the 30-times league champions, record 20-times Taça de Portugal and 24-times Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira winners, have brushed aside every opponent thus far.

In the league there’s been seven clean sheets in eight, only Sporting Lisbon has breached their sturdy defence, and the only ‘blip’ on their copy-book, a goalless draw with Benfica (who played Newcastle United in the Champions League on Tuesday night, losing 3-0 at St. James’ Park), in Porto’s last outing.

They’ve progressed in the Taça de Portugal, and in this season’s Europa League group stage defeated Red Bull Salzburg and Red Star Belgrade, 1-0 and 2-1 respectively; following the Forest game the ‘Dragões’ will oppose Utrecht (a), Nice (h), Malmo (h), Viktoria Plzen (a), before finishing against another club with a new manager, Scottish side, Glasgow Rangers (h).

In Farioli, he only arrived in Oporto back in July, and didn’t have much to do in order to change things around at the Estádio do Dragão; still the right side of forty, he was born in the Tuscany region of Italy, spending his formative years in Italian football’s lower echelons.

Coaching as high as Serie C, as a goalkeeping coach, Farioli would have a spell in Qatar before returning home, spending two years on the staff at Sassuolo between 2018-20, before a couple of years in Turkey, then France (Nice, 2023-24), and Netherlands (Ajax, 2024-25), where he’d cut his teeth at a higher level.

Arriving in Portugal, at a time of change for the Portuguese giants, he’s overseen the arrival of a number of number players blooded alongside some quality and experience, splashing large sums on the likes of Viktor Froholdt, Gabri Veiga, Alberto Costa, Borja Sainz, and Jan Bednarek, among others.

A stable starting eleven, and squad in general, Farioli can call upon the experience of his captain and goalkeeper, Diogo Costa; the Portuguese international shot-stopper has been with the club since joining their youth set-up back in 2011, keeping a clean sheet on his debut against Santa Clara in a cup game, a little over six years ago.

Overall, for the ‘Dragões,’ Costa has pulled on his club’s jersey over 250 times, with 207 appearances coming for the senior team, along with forty appearances for the national team having played at every level from U15s upwards.

In-front of him, new signing, the Pole, Bednarek, is usually joined by either of Nigerian Zaidu Sanusi, Portugal’s Alberto Costa and Francisco Moura, another Pole in Jakub Kiwior or Croatian Dominik Prpić – Sanusi has been in Portugal since 2020 and made over 140 appearances, and Moura has made 50+ appearances.

The Porto midfield will likely consist of the Dane, Froholdt, the Spaniard, Veiga, and an Argentine, Alan Varela, most likely with either Portugal’s Rodrigo Mora and/or the Brazilian William Gomes – Varela joined from Boca Juniors in 2023 and has made a century of appearances, Mora came through the youth system in recent years, whilst Gomes is a talented youth who landed in Portugal from Sao Paulo.

They don’t specifically rely on their forwards mind you, despite the eight goals netted by Spaniard Samu Aghehowa, and the four for William Gomes, Porto have seen some fourteen different scorers find the back of the net this season.

Aghehowa will be partnered in a number of combinations available to manager Farioli, with Borja Sainz and the Brazilian Pepê having played the most thus far – Aghehowa’s record for Porto since joining in August 2024, 35 goals in 54 games, oh, and he’s won Olympic Gold with Spain last year!!

In regards Sean Dyche and Nottingham Forest, this will be the proverbial ‘free hit,’ surely with a draw certainly a good result, before the focus quickly switches to a trip to the South Coast, and third place Bournemouth on Sunday afternoon.

First though, Dyche, Stone and Woan, welcome FC Porto to the City Ground, on Thursday (23 October) night, in the UEFA Europa League, kick-off set for 20:00; further information from the usual, Nottingham Forest outlets.