They looked like an expensive bunch of misfits who were hurtling towards the Championship but now Nottingham Forest’s much-criticised summer signings could finish the season in the Champions League.
Since Vitor Pereira became Forest’s fourth permanent head coach this season, most have focused on Morgan Gibbs-White’s brilliant form or the burgeoning talent of Elliot Anderson.
Yet Pereira has done his best work with others. James McAtee, Dilane Bakwa and Jair Cunha arrived for nearly £70million combined last summer and for various reasons, neither Nuno Espirito Santo, Ange Postecoglou nor Sean Dyche saw the best of them.
With a relegation battle to fight and a European campaign to manage, it would have been easy for Pereira to neglect his fringe players. Instead, he has made them feel important – and he has done the same with training ground staff, too.
Throw in the work of set-piece specialist Luis Miguel and you have a team and club that feels completely different from February 12, the night Forest sacked Sean Dyche and started looking for their fourth permanent boss of the season.
Here, Daily Mail Sport reveals how Pereira united the squad – and made the second string feel like the main men.
A squad not a team
It is easy to pinpoint the moment Dyche lost the players. It was January 9 and Forest had just lost on penalties at Wrexham in the FA Cup third round, after Dyche rotated heavily.
Dyche promptly rubbished the starters after the match and at a stroke, alienated his squad. Those who had played felt unfairly targeted, while those who had been rested – including influential voices like Gibbs-White – felt angry on their behalf. Dyche lasted only 34 more days and it is no wonder Pereira has tried a different approach.
Despite his relaxed manner, Pereira is a workaholic. Alongside his trusted lieutenant Miguel, Pereira was working until 3am in those early days, analysing every member of the squad – both their displays for Forest and with former clubs.
They evaluated their technical and tactical strengths and noticed that some of these players’ physical data at Forest did not match what they had produced at other clubs. The next task was to reverse the trend.
Players like McAtee, Bakwa, Jair Cunha and Taiwo Awoniyi needed to improve their fitness and rhythm, and Pereira and his staff planned bespoke sessions to bring them up to speed.
More than anything, though, Pereira realised these players needed love. One former player describes him as ‘a great motivator’ who is determined never to exclude anyone and his management style has been compared with that of Carlo Ancelotti.
Pereira spoke individually to the fringe players early on in his reign and convinced them each would have a part to play if Forest were to achieve their objectives. Sure enough, Omari Hutchinson is now a first-team regular after struggling to convince Nuno, Dyche or Postecoglou.
Cunha has played 31 per cent of the possible minutes under Pereira, compared with five per cent under Dyche. McAtee and Bakwa started the famous away victories at Midtjylland, Porto and Chelsea. Forgotten forward Awoniyi scored twice at Stamford Bridge and now has three in six games.
Set-pieces
Sometimes it feels like the Premier League’s set-piece coaches are as famous as the players themselves. In 2024, fans even created a mural of Arsenal set-piece coach Nicolas Jover.
With a hairstyle resembling that of the late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, Aston Villa’s Austin MacPhee has a similarly high profile to Jover.
Thanks to his iron-grey hair, army-style trim and bullish touchline presence, Miguel will be no stranger to Premier League officials. Yet he is no mere attack dog. He has been called a ‘genius’ on the training ground and the numbers bear it out.
Excluding penalties, only two of the 13 goals Forest let in under Pereira have been from set-pieces. Compare that with Dyche (seven of 34) and Postecoglou (10 of 18). At the other end of the pitch, Pereira has largely maintained Dyche’s record of set-piece goals, with both hovering at around the 20 per cent mark.
Pereira is involved in every aspect of training except for set-pieces. That is when Miguel takes over and Forest look far more convincing when facing them. Even during their outstanding 2024-25 season under Nuno, Forest relied heavily on Matz Sels to make near-impossible saves. With Pereira and Miguel in the dugout, the Belgian no longer has to be a superhero every weekend.
At Villa Park, the duels between John McGinn and Neco Williams, Ezri Konsa and Chris Wood and Youri Tielemans and Elliot Anderson will shape the match. But the battle between MacPhee and Miguel might ultimately decide it.
Backroom staff
Pereira walked into a dispirited club. While the spotlight shone on the rift between Dyche and the senior players, training ground staff were similarly demoralised.
The reason? Both Postecoglou and Dyche worked with a tight circle of assistants and relied almost exclusively on them. That meant analysts and performance staff who had been at the club since the days of Steve Cooper – one of its most successful periods of recent times – felt left out.
Pereira has changed all that. An affable character, the Portuguese has not only got to know everyone, he has made them feel involved, too. Though Pereira arrived with his own team, he wants them to work with existing staff, rather than creating a separate department. Sure enough, everyone is collaborating and the atmosphere is far better.
Pereira certainly has a steely side and will not shy away from confrontation. But instead of the hairdryer treatment, Pereira will deliver his message firmly, but politely.
Though the 57-year-old was raised in a very different football culture, he is smart enough to understand that Gen Z players will not respond to being berated, either in public or private. Discussions focus on how players can improve, rather than what they did wrong.
Recently, Gibbs-White was moved from the No10 spot to wide left. The skipper can be a sensitive soul so rather than telling him to follow orders, Pereira framed their chat as a discussion between senior members of staff. It worked a treat.
At last week’s press conference before the first leg against Villa, it was striking to see how easy Pereira and defender Ola Aina were in each other’s company. Contrast with the regimes of Postecoglou and Dyche, where there was little mutual warmth.
What next?
We have seen this film before with Pereira. After performing brilliantly last season to haul Wolves to safety, Pereira’s world imploded. He lost key players like Matheus Cunha and Rayan Ait-Nouri, the club signed a job lot of below-par replacements in the summer and Pereira was sacked in November.
Even if Forest qualify for the Champions League, Anderson looks bound for Manchester City or Manchester United, while Murillo could also leave. There will always be interest in players of Gibbs-White’s ability.
Because of the groundwork Pereira has done with Forest’s fringe players, Pereira is surely in a better spot to ride that storm.
If McAtee or Bakwa become a first-team regular next season, they will know Pereira trusts them already. And if they have all won a European trophy together, that bond will be nearly unbreakable.