Nottingham Forest ended 2025 in defeat at home to Everton, with Sean Dyche’s tactical shortcomings and the Reds’ woeful consistency coming to the fore — a 2-0 loss firmly cementing their place in the Premier League’s relegation battle. George Edwards was at the match
Nottingham Forest started 2025 with the prospect of Champions League football a realistic possibility. They end it with growing relegation woes every week passed, as the teams around them build confidence while they continue to regress.
The most worrying thing about their 2-0 defeat to an Everton side missing five key starters was that it was a collective display of flatness. You can point to individual mistakes leading to the goals, but Forest lacked any sort of united attacking spark and looked collectively clueless defensively.
That comes from the top.
There was a reason Everton got rid of Sean Dyche and replaced him with David Moyes — a manager with a similar style of football and outlook, but perhaps more effective? Everton set up stoutly, forcing Forest wide at every possible occasion, confident in their relentless ability to head the ball away and clear the second ball.
Forest’s midfield three operated like individuals, rarely combining and coming close or moving around the field with pressure. Douglas Luiz came on at half-time and encountered the same issue: nobody ahead of him when he looked around to play through the middle or towards goal.
On the touchline, Dyche was completely unable to react or influence, with Forest trying the exact same things for 90 minutes with no plan B, only looking like scoring on the odd occasion Everton lapsed defensively.
His substitutions and failure to utilise the bench were baffling as he continued to persist with Taiwo Awoniyi over Arnaud Kalimuendo as the reserve number nine. Kalimuendo hasn’t created major headlines in the Garibaldi, but his confidence continued to grow as he got minutes in the Europa League, scoring two neat goals synonymous of a natural number nine.
Awoniyi, on the other hand, looks a shadow of his former self, coming on for half an hour and having three miss-kicks in the box while failing to drop deep and receive the ball — Kalimuendo watched on while rumours about his imminent departure swirled.
James MacAtee has done very little in a Forest shirt too, but the game was crying out for some kind of spark to ignite the fight, something Dilane Bakwa brought to an extent, but the game was gone by the time he came on in the 75th minute.
Forest have to sort out their squad in January, shipping out players Dyche refuses to use and replacing them with players who can aid the fight his way. His way isn’t very inspiring, especially at the moment, but Forest either have to part ways with him or the players he doesn’t value; otherwise their tailspin will likely culminate in the Championship.
Questions must also be asked of Forest’s inconsistency, especially from games against the league’s elite compared to fixtures they are expected to pick up points in.
Forest beat Liverpool 3-0. Tottenham 3-0. Fought admirably and lost narrowly against Manchester City. Yet they’ve lost 5-0 on aggregate to Everton in the space of a month, lost to Fulham and Brighton without scoring and scraped narrowly past bottom club Wolves by a single goal.
You have to be at the top of your game to pick up even a point in the Premier League, something Forest excelled at last season but this term have fallen short at on too many occasions.
That said, you don’t have to be at the top of your game to beat Forest at the moment.
They look like the easiest team in the league to face, playing right into Everton’s hands for the 90 minutes — 52 crosses into the box where towering defenders James Tarkowski and Jake O’Brien waited, almost laughing at Forest as they nodded each and every one away with ease.
Forest need to get their heads in gear, fast. Below them even Wolves picked up a point yesterday, and West Ham’s draw with Brighton will boost them ahead of their next two against Wolves and then Forest.
Above, Leeds have adapted to a more defensive setup and have a number nine scoring goals, and in the cluster beyond them, it’s hard to imagine anybody getting dragged in to the fight for survival.
There can’t be a blasé attitude to Forest’s situation, a belief that they are too good to go down and that somehow things will fall into place. They are halfway through the season and are staring relegation starkly in the face, as they end 2025 two managers on and 14 places lower than they started it.
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