Revealed: Sean Dyche's message to Nottingham Forest stars during first training session as players make clear their stance on new boss

Sean Dyche intends to restore some of the principles that delivered European football for Nottingham Forest last season.

The club’s third manager already this term, Dyche takes charge of his first game against Porto on Thursday following Ange Postecoglou’s disastrous 39-day spell in charge.

Daily Mail Sport can reveal the squad were impressed by their first session with Dyche on Tuesday and believe he can revive the rock-solid team spirit that carried Forest so far under Nuno Espírito Santo.

‘Keep things simple’ is thought to have been the key message - music to the ears of players who simply never bought into Postecoglou’s methods.

Though the team will not look exactly like Nuno’s, it will be far more similar to the Portuguese’s idea of football than Postecoglou’s. Against Porto, there are unlikely to be significant changes to the system but the style will probably be somewhat different.

Nuno had great success last term with a counter-attacking style that nearly propelled Forest into the Champions League. Postecoglou, on the other hand, wanted to run before he could walk. He tried to turn Forest into a daring, front-footed team overnight and it backfired spectacularly.

That is unlikely to happen with Dyche. The former Burnley and Everton boss is a proven operator in the English top flight and has experience of Europe, too, when he led Burnley into the Europa League in 2018-19.

Back then, they were eliminated in the play-off round by Olympiacos - who are controlled by Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis. Marinakis would like Dyche to go much further in his latest crack at Europe.

In his first interview as Forest's new manager on Tuesday, Dyche said: 'I don't think it's far away from the team reconnecting. Results help that, of course, but I think the first thing is performances. 

'Building that momentum, and obviously it's lost it's way a little bit, and we've got to try and recorrect that of course. But the same group of players and some new signings, moulding that together and making it a really offensively powerful team. It has been a defensive base which has been good, certainly under Nuno.

'I want the players to have the freedom to go and play. Express that. I think there's some talent here for sure, so how can we find that balance? The risk and rewards of going forward to score goals and excite the crowd, but equally the base, which has been so good for Forest. That'll be the key.'