The Debrief: Is Sean Dyche the next Premier League manager to face the sack?

0:00On the Football Daily Podcast, The Debrief with Steve Crossman. Things are getting tight at the bottom of the Premier League. Nottingham Forest and Wolves shared the points in a goalless draw at the City ground. Burnley came from two down to win 3-2 against Crystal Palace. There are now six points between West Ham in 18th and Leeds in 15th. We've got Steph Houghton, Nader Manua and Phil Jagielka all with us. Let's start with Forest then. Steph, I don't know if this is a simple question or not. Is Sean Dyche now in real bother? Yeah, I think they're in the thick of it, if I'm being honest. more because of performances and mixed in with the results.

0:39I think in terms of what Forrest have from a player's point of view, I think they've probably got a better equipped squad than the likes of West Ham, Burnley, Wolves. But at this moment, they're not performing at a level where they're able to get themselves in front and be able to hold on to leads. I can't help but fail, Phil. It is so ominous whenever the camera goes on of Angelos Maranakis, isn't it? because he's always, he sits in almost literally a throne there. The camera's always on him and he does not hide his emotions. Yeah, he doesn't zoom in very often when he's happy. It's the majority of the time when he looks like he's ready to do something.

1:21Negative or positive depends, which obviously, where you look at things. I think it'd be extremely harsh, but again, nothing would surprise me at Forest, especially this season. but he came in to do a job and that job was to make sure they stayed out of the relegation zone. He's picked up a few points. Again, he was not too dissimilar to obviously the job he had to do at Everton but we know that this owner doesn't like watching his team underperform and he's not scared to make big decisions. Sean Dyche failing to get a win in his last three matches now. They are just three points above West Ham United in 18th and here is the Forest head coach.

2:00Well, the difficulties have got lesser when I got here, but not enough than where we wanted to be. That's probably the reality of it. Two points in the relegation when we got here, in the relegation zone when we got here. Not a good position to be in. Three points out of it is not where I wanted to be, but it's better than it was. That's just the reality of that. It's a statistical reality, of course. There's a lot of noise in between that, a lot of big opinions, but that's the stats and facts. Lastly for me, Sean, you've spoken about the outside noise and all the rest of it. Is it affecting you at all?

2:27You're only human. You're in a difficult position. the club or the players are giving you everything. How does it affect you day to day? It's the reality of the job. You don't do it. Your manager always said to your young manager, if you haven't got that feeling where you can deal with that, don't do it because there's going to be a lot of challenges. You're going to get a lot of question marks over you, over who you are, what you are. And nowadays we all know social media is awful at times. We all know that. There's no governance. So we can say more or less what they want. So you've got to grow thick skin and you've got to be reality bound.

2:58And I am reality bound. There's never, I don't believe, you might tell me wrong, but I can't remember over my 350 Premier League games, 351 someone just told me that I've made many excuses in my time. And I certainly can't remember blaming fans. It's my responsibility, simple as that. I take it on daily. I work very, very hard, as do my staff and as I expected the players. That's all I can do is keep working very, very hard until someone tells me differently, if they choose to tell me differently. Sean Dyche there with Chris Calls and Chris is with us now from the City Ground. What did you make of that then, Chris?

3:27We heard the words and it was very impassioned. How did he look? How did it feel speaking to him there? Yeah, you often get a feel, Steve, when you speak to managers about what's to come. And it very much felt that was Sean Dyche laying down his case just in case the axe were to fall on him. And you heard in that last answer in particular about his record, defending the fact that he doesn't make any excuses. and there were a good few answers prior to that where he did speak about his record at Forrest and he did mention things like no one speaks about the form that Forrest were in prior to my arrival.

4:03It's all about what happens next. And interestingly, Sammy Mockbell has written for the website to say that Sean Dyche's position is under major scrutiny tonight and it did have that feel around the place that if Forrest were not to pick up a positive result, a win, then he would be under pressure. and this goalless draw has only served to intensify the eternal scrutiny on Sean Dyche's job. There were boos at full time and Sammy writes, the fact that are characterised by the boos from home supporters following the draw to Wolves and there is a feeling within the Forest hierarchy that Dyche's appointment has not had the impact that they'd hoped.

4:38Three points the gap between Forest and the relegation zone. West Ham are in much better form. There is a little gap now before Forest play. They don't play until Thursday when they face Fenerbahce in the Europa League. So that does leave Forrest with Sammy Wright's ample time to identify and appoint a new head coach should they decide to part with Dyche. So after that and the interview that Sean Dyche has given, I think he knows that he is a man under severe pressure and it goes a long way to explain some of the answers he was giving there. It almost felt like he was defending his record with Nottingham Forrest should he lose his job in the coming days.

5:13Chris, thank you very much. Really interesting. Nader, I know you don't like narrative broadcasting. Yeah, it depends. I.e. like when we see Maranakis. We've seen Maranakis always. He's under pressure. And you almost go from one thing to another to another. However, hearing what Chris was saying there about Sammy's piece, and I'll tell you when that's live on the website, if it's in the next 15 minutes before Tony Livesy takes over, hearing what we've heard about that piece, that's not narrative, that's fact. So it is starting to feel like, and Chris is right, You could hear something in his voice there, I think.

5:47Yeah, yeah. Yeah, absolutely you could. And it's understandable. But as it stands, they're not in the bottom three. I worry what it would have felt like if they were. But he'll try and explain that he isn't actually doing the worst of jobs. And I think actual points gathered wise. Because West Ham are doing well right now, it feels like West Ham have been doing much better for the whole time. But this was the same West Ham side that lost convincingly at home. and they lost, I think it was the start of the year, and lost 3-0 away at Wolves. So they were in crisis not too long ago. But for West Ham, I've just got it up here, in the last 10 games, they have...

6:25Sorry, not West Ham, sorry. In the last 10 games, Forest have had nine points. West Ham have had 11. So we're not talking about, say, some of the best form we've ever seen here from people behind them. Nine games are a long time to be calculating something over though, isn't it? In what sense, sorry? well because if i were to calculate it over five games then west ham have won three of them yeah but how long has he been is how long has he been in uh yeah nuno and say daish as well i'd say well nuno's been in longer because there was a whole manager at forest yeah that part that part is definitely true yeah so it's not it's literally it's not the worst thing yeah i see exactly what you mean relatively speaking but like because we live on this game-to-game basis, it can feel really bad.

7:08West Ham in the last five games have actually looked half-decent, whereas for Forest, they're not scoring any goals. They've just had the ultimate... It's the perfect stress game. You've got Wolves at home. This is supposed to be the banker. You have to win this game. So when you don't do it, then the critique's going to be there, isn't it? And realistically, his players have let him down. They should have put the ball in the back of the net. They've had 31, 32 shots, they probably had five guilt-edged opportunities where they score one goal and there's a good chance, well, the Wolves have one chance in the last minute.

7:44There's a good chance they win that game. If they win that game, it's just not fair. Football's not fair sometimes. And you can tell, even with his interview there, Sean Dyche realised when he came into the club, he realised what he was coming into. If he does get relieved of his duties, it won't really be fair. He's not in the relegation zone. He's not having an absolute torrid. but unfortunately as I just said sometimes it's just not quite fair 100 % and obviously some people don't like it when you start doing the hypotheticals and stuff but they should have won that game like for the chances he's had and he's talking about five massive chances which is fair and if they would have won that game there'd be one point behind Leeds who are being praised at this moment for being in great form so it's all sometimes we can look so singularly at certain things but then look at the wider sort of league itself and see where people are I've said the specific parts of the season if this was three or four games into the season you'd be like well I'll tell you what we look like We're absolutely flying.

8:33All we need to do is find a goal. Whereas now, it's panic stations. No matter what we do, we're never going to score a goal and we're going to get relegated. So it depends what sort of height you are. At this point in the season, in the final third of the season, when all of a sudden you reach that moment where performances don't really matter, what matters is results. The flip side of that discussion early in the season is this now with Nottingham Forest. It doesn't matter that they had 30 shots. None of that. It doesn't matter if it isn't fair. Football isn't fair. The result is all that matters.

9:01No, exactly. And I think even though they're probably saying we're concentrating on Nottingham Forest, there's no way that you're not kind of got eyes on different teams. And that's just how it works in football. Even for tonight's fixture, every fan's actually circling it going, actually, we need three points at home. And the fact is at home as well, even though Wolves potentially are going to go down because of the performances this season, that is a must win game in the kind of bigger scheme of things. and I do think that they are worried because of how West Ham are performing and I think that has been such a massive difference in these last three games because they beat Sunderland 3-0 convincingly but from an attacking point of view they look afresh every time they play someone and that's been the biggest difference for West Ham over these last few games.

9:47If West Ham stay up under Nuno and Forrest go down I would not like to be anywhere near Evangelos Maranakis I don't think there's any danger of that happening, but yikes. So Forrest, 27 points from 26. West Ham, who were 18, 24 from 26. And then Burnley, 18 from 26. But they got a massive win tonight. They were 2-0 down at Crystal Palace. Came back and won 3-2. Here's Scott Parker. Incredible today, to be honest with you. I think through the run we've been on, the adversity, coming out the back of the weekend, where it was very clear in that sense, we were all hurting and even the circumstances today in terms of 2-0 down.

10:29I mean, that team today was fight, spirit, commitment and absolute resilience, to be honest with you. So I'm delighted for the players, first and foremost, and the staff. We've been through a tough, tough, tough road and this is just one result, of course it is, but in the adversity that we faced, we've pulled off a brilliant result here. At 2-0 down, were you thinking, oh no, here we go again? Well, look, at this present moment in time, I think leading into the game, it's clear we was a little bit fragile. But I think there's one thing I see these players every single day. I know the resilience they've got.

11:02I know how committed they are. And yeah, we get ourselves back in the game and we held on in our moments, really. So pleased with that. Scott Parker there speaking to Match of the Day's John Rodham. Look, Phil, it might not make any difference. They are still nine points. do you know what we ask you know when people say stranger things have happened stranger things haven't happened than Wolves staying up but they have happened than Burnley staying up like that is still just about not ludicrous yeah I think it's going to be really tough you know they're relying on you know probably well this has to be the start yeah Leeds Leeds Spurs Forest and probably West Ham four teams there probably having an absolute nightmare of an end of the season and then them having what winning probably be five or six on the spin, which again, it's possible.

11:49You know, I said they struggled to score goals and within seven minutes, they got three today. So maybe next week I'll come on and challenge him again and see if they do it. So yeah, there's plenty of points to play for, but they probably just need to keep going forward, scoring more goals and see what it takes them. Do they still stick things up on the dressing room wall? Do you think now? Like Phil Jagielka comments on Burnley, can't score. That's fine. I'll go in if they want to throw some punches at me. Let's go back toward the other end of the table. Aston Villa, big win for them over Brighton.

12:25Remember, they'd lost their last two home Premier League games. This victory by a goal to nil takes them up to 50 points. So they are now five above Manchester United. Most importantly, they are eight above Liverpool in sixth, given top five is almost certainly going to mean Champions League football. Three behind City, six behind Arsenal. Tyrone Minks thought he'd scored the winner. It's gone down as an own goal for Jack Hinshelwood. Here is Minks. Yeah, I tried to fool him, didn't I, with the celebration. You fooled me? Yeah, exactly. I mean, I got a touch. It clearly wasn't enough, but it felt like it was going in some direction towards the goal.

12:59So I don't know how I haven't got that. But yeah, I'm not exactly prolific, but I feel on fire at the moment. I've had a few chances in recent weeks and obviously the clean sheet was more important to me as a defender, but being able to influence at the other end of the pitch is just as important when we get the opportunity and yeah, delighted with the win tonight. It was a hard battling performance tonight. Brighton obviously didn't want to give you any opportunities at all but you kept on going till the end. How big a win might that be in terms of remembering what it's like to win here again and putting a bit of a gap between yourself and the teams beneath you in the table?

13:34Yeah, listen, I think every point you can get in the Premier League is never a bad one and we picked up one at the weekend. We were 1-0 up and I said before the game, every game now is going to be so difficult and Brighton are a team that I think deserve more points than what they've currently got for the way that they play. They're fantastic and we started with a game plan and very quickly changed and that is what is required of football at this level, is to start with something. If it's not working, stay in the game, try and impose our game plan on theirs and if theirs is slightly different, then adapt.

14:06I think it was a great tactical battle. Maybe not one that will get replayed in Premier League years and many years to come, but it was a great tactical battle. Mr Milner, who has matched Gareth Barry's record of the number of Premier League appearances. What a fabulous achievement that is. Yeah, I did say to him at the end of the game, is that the record? What a place to do it as well. But he didn't seem like he was in the mood to talk. I said, obviously, the context is a little disappointing for him, but amazing player, one that I grew up obviously appreciating. when I was a younger boy. And that longevity is something that everybody can look towards.

14:44He's an absolutely fantastic career. If people could take a small percentage of that, everybody would be happy. So huge congratulations to him. Tyrone Mings there with Match of the Day's Martin Fisher. Tyrone Mings always talks well and he's just got the biggest laugh out of the studio all night. Yeah, absolutely. Because I could imagine that dour Yorkshireman fuming that he's just lost the game like that. Not all people from Yorkshire are dour. That's why I said that dour Yorkshireman. You link the two things together. No, no, you've taken offence to it. But nobody ever says like chirpy Yorkshireman.

15:13We are always described as dour. Well, I said that one, that dour one. He's definitely fuming because they've got beat. Yeah, 100%. I've got to say as well, by the way, when he came on in that game, 20 minutes in as a sub, he's horrible, by the way. Horrible. What a horrendous time to come on. But fair play to his professionalism because he managed to do it. Just couldn't get a win, could he? And raging. full head gone fully expected he was never going to say yeah thanks was he he was just going to shake your hand and walk in he's going to hear any of this fuss you know do you know what knowing James he's not going to like any of this I totally agree I just hope when his career is all said and done he can actually look back and enjoy it because there's no chance he's doing it right now he's like nah we've lost the game James you've just tied the record for most appearances in the Premier League ever like you are tied number one well he won't be willing then he'll be probably numero uno yeah exactly yeah exactly good luck to whoever's going to try to do that maybe he may smile and have a vim tone so when James Milner breaks the record yes do you think he will do an interview about it even if his team have won absolutely no you think he'll say no he'll say no I think he might I think when he's broke it he might actually relax for 30 seconds I don't think immediately I think maybe a few weeks down the line but I'd like to think so there's been so much talk about this conspiracy that he's just being thrown on just to get the appearances up.

16:36If it is, so what? You know what I mean? I know, but if you know what he's like, you'll hear everything because he wants to be on there because of how good he is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm with that. I just hope that when it happens, he'll appreciate the fact that everyone that's played with him or has supported him across those 24 years. We want to congratulate him for being the number one. Yeah, definitely. You know what I mean? What a position that is.

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17:23Mohamed Salah represents a dream for Egyptians, for Muslims, for Africans. I'm Kelly Cates. This is Sporting Giants, Mo Salah. Listen on BBC Sounds. On the Football Daily Podcast, The Debrief. With Steve Crossman. Antoine Semenyo scored his fifth goal for Manchester City since joining tonight. Here he is after they beat Fulham 3-0. We were just building on what happened over the weekend. We want to obviously catch the leaders at the moment and these games are important to us. So same messages from the weekend, just press, play our game and we'll get opportunities. And we've done that today, so we're happy.

18:07Obviously, Fulham came with a game plan to try and nick something on the break. And actually, they did cause you a few problems on the break. So getting your noses in front was important because the longer it went on at nil-nil, the more difficult it might become. Yeah, I think, yeah, they had their moments where they were playing and causing a few problems. But we had to put this thing in, obviously getting the goals early on. definitely helped our case. But those are little things that we need to obviously work on and make sure we're in the under for the games coming up. Antoine Semenio there with Match of the Day's Steve Wilson.

18:39Right, Neirdum, three points is the gap again. City absolutely cruised that, didn't they? Yes, I would say so for the most part. The game was done at half-time and I think City played that second half according to that. And I'll be honest, I think Fulham would come away thinking that they've done well in that second half, but it's a lot easier to do well when the game is already done and the pressure's kind of off. I think City were doing more defending. I think they only had one shot in the second half, but it never really felt like a game which was going to get ahead of them. But I think to give City credit, the way that they started, I think Antoine was talking about it there himself.

19:11He said, go and press and be aggressive. And that's exactly what they were. There were so many players for Fulham who 10, 15, 20 minutes into the game weren't in a rhythm because every time they'd be defending, then the ball would get to them and there's somebody right in their face. And before you know it, there's another turnover and City put them on the back foot. you start to become a little bit negative in terms of how they play. And I think that very much set the tone for City. Start strong or start quickly and then you can slow down. But if you start slow, there's no guarantee that you'll be able to basically put yourself in a position where you can be in control of the game.

19:41But it's a strong result for them. It's probably not surprising, considering they've won the last 19 against Fulham. Since when? I don't remember. But fair play to them for getting the job done. I sort of feel like Nico O 'Reilly's performance and still sort of feels like the story, even weirdly, even more than Semenya. Yeah, both were very, very good tonight. I think in terms of, we spoke about before, Nico O 'Reilly's new position, which is probably not new to him, but for us seeing him play in the Man City first team, being in that midfield position, whether they call it a 10 or another eight, whatever it might be.

20:16But I think it shows a lot of his qualities that we've maybe seen a little bit at left back. I think at left back, you've seen that he's improved his 1v1 defender, but he wants to attack, he wants to get on the ball and in them central areas I think City are striking a nice balance with him, Bernardo, Rodri, obviously Foden played today and Semenyo I think in terms of you couldn't have wished for a better start at your new club, I think five goals but just in general I think his overall play and we spoke about Presson before, he was very much the main trigger for that going forward and trying to put Fulham under pressure and you can see that he's just absolutely loving every single minute and rightly so.

20:55I don't know if there's an answer to this or not, but it just occurred to me because you were saying earlier about how highly rated he's been for such a long time. Because I don't know if this is still the case, but certainly up until really recently, the academy and the City women's team used to share a lot of facilities, didn't they? So you would have seen kids like Nico O 'Reilly when they were really kids. Yeah, I mean, it's crazy to think that, like I was at City for 10 years and you're seeing the likes of him, Phil Ford and Cole Palmer come through the ranks and you see them playing for the under 13s, under 14s.

21:24But even then, there's so much talk about them. And it's so mad that they all played in the same position. They're all left footed and they're all 10s. And it must be just something about the way that the system is, the philosophy, but they are such key players in these academy sides that they try to just breed these number 10s. And that's quite evident. But there was so much talk that he was going to have this potential. And I'm so glad he's been able to kind of burst on the scene last season. but also take his opportunity because as a young player, you don't really get many of them. So when they do come around, it's about grasping it and enjoying it because I think we forget that football is about enjoying it and being on the grass and you can see today he's loving every minute.

22:05Liverpool beat Sunderland 1-0. Here is the Liverpool manager Arne Slott. I think we showed again today how well we can play on the ball. Created so many opportunities for ourselves today and only scoring one was not what we, I think, deserved. But we only scored one and then the character we've shown throughout the whole game not to concede was very good and that's why we leave this place with a 1-0 win. Talk to me about the approach tonight, because yes, you scored from a set-piece, but in the first half in particular, in very difficult conditions, your team played a lot of very good football.

22:38Yeah, that's what I saw as well. And as we said, I think also in the second half we had so many good moments, so many moments where we brought our quality players in very promising positions. And as I said, 1-0. Leeds didn't completely feel enough if you look at how the performance was. But the good thing is today we didn't concede and we scored from a set piece. And that's something that we haven't done so many times this season. Let's finish with a bit of reaction from the Knights' action in Scotland. So Rangers heading into stoppage time were leading against Motherwell. Celtic heading into stoppage time were level with Livingston.

23:22But Celtic ended up winning and Rangers ending up drawing. So Celtic are third on 51 points. Rangers second on 52. Hearts the leaders now five points clear on 57 points. We're going to hear from the man who scored the winner for Celtic on his debut, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Here he is. I have to say a big thank you to everyone at Arsenal. They all know, I've all spoke to them for giving me the chance to keep my fitness up. And then an even bigger thank you to the manager here in this football club for giving me the chance to put on this kit and play for this amazing club. And then, you know, when you get those opportunities, you just you want to be able to, you know, pay back with moments of quality like that.

24:04and yeah it's been difficult and sometimes the way things go in football you know especially when you cross that 30 years of age barrier you may be not as valuable as you once were in a business sense of things but I always knew I still had a lot to give and you know training every day for the last three months where I was training that sort of gave me the confidence in that sort of environment that I can still offer a lot to the game and then yeah I'm absolutely delighted to be here and have the opportunity to do that and help these boys. Yeah, tonight is a great start for me. But more importantly, it keeps our goals alive and keeps us going in the right direction here now.