'We haven't got magic dust' – Dyche urges patience with Forest's misfiring attack

Sean Dyche warned Nottingham Forest fans not to expect a miraculous turnaround in fortunes ahead of Sunday's clash with Leeds United.

Forest have won just two games in all competitions this season, with those victories coming on the opening day of the Premier League campaign and in Dyche's first match in charge, against Porto in the Europa League, on October 23.

Dyche has suffered a defeat to Bournemouth and drawn at home to Manchester United in his first two Premier League matches as Forest boss, while his team drew 0-0 with Sturm Graz in Europe on Thursday.

A home match against Leeds, who sit three places and five points above Forest, seemingly presents a good chance to get back on course, but Dyche has urged patience.

"We haven't got magic dust," he said.

"You can't suddenly make players who are not used to having that killer edge score 20 a season. It's not that easy or else we'd all be doing it."

Forest sit 19th on six points, and Dyche says the club's fans should not underestimate the scale of the task at hand.

"When I was on the outside looking at it and fans were telling me, 'we're going to do this and we're going to do that', I said 'I don't think it's that easy'," he added.

"Once I saw them get into Europe, I said, 'trust me, it's not going to be that easy'.

"There's a lot of work that needs to be done. That's what we're doing and that's what we intend to do."

Forest are the league's joint-lowest scorers, with just seven goals this term, but Leeds have only netted nine times.

"We are a newly promoted side, so you can't expect us to make as many chances as [Erling] Haaland does for Manchester City," said Leeds boss Daniel Farke.

"Our strikers know our position and we just want to score enough goals to stay in this league. The main thing is that we are successful as a team.

"I don't judge my players on their goals and assists, it's also about their workload. It's not that we are not brave enough – we just don't make enough chances."

Across his Premier League spells with Norwich City and Leeds, Farke has seen his teams fail to score in 32 out of 59 matches (54%), the highest ratio of any manager to take charge of 50+ games in the competition's history.

Leeds have drawn a blank in five of 10 games so far in 2025-26.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Nottingham Forest - Morgan Gibbs-White

Gibbs-White has been involved in 45 Premier League goals for the club (18 goals, 27 assists), the outright most of any player.

He is looking to score in consecutive appearances for the first time since May.

Leeds United - Noah Okafor

Among players to play 250+ minutes, only Estevao (9.5) and Jeremy Doku (9.2) have made more dribbles per 90 minutes in the Premier League this season than Leeds' Okafor (7.5).

Using the same parameters for minutes played, it is the most by a Leeds player in a league season since Georginio Rutter in 2022-23 (8.5 per 90 minutes).

MATCH PREDICTION: NOTTINGHAM FOREST WIN

In their 3-0 defeat to Brighton last week, Leeds gave up an xG total of 3.07, their most in a league game under Farke, while they faced seven shots on target, their joint-most under the German (also seven against Ipswich in August 2023).

In return, they only had five shots, only having fewer in a game in the last three seasons against Arsenal in August this season (three).

Forest have endured a run of 18 consecutive Premier League matches without keeping a clean sheet, while 2025-26 is their second top-flight season without a clean sheet in their opening 10 matches, after 1960-61. They last went longer without a league clean sheet between April and November 2016 in the Championship (20 games).

Leeds are one of only two sides to concede the opening goal in all five away Premier League matches this season (W1 L4), along with Brighton. The Whites have lost 16 of their last 17 away top-flight games when conceding first, with the exception of their 3-1 win at bottom side Wolves in September this season.

Forest have gone nine Premier League matches without a victory (D3 L6), last enduring a longer winless run between February and April 2023 (11 in a row), which included a defeat to Leeds.

However, Forest are unbeaten in their last 13 top-flight home games against Leeds (W6 D7) since a 2-0 loss in November 1971 under Matt Gillies.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Nottingham Forest - 51.3%

Draw - 24.8%

Leeds United - 23.9%