Gary Lineker tells Nottingham Forest players to 'show some b****' in Evangelos Marinakis meeting

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Gary Lineker believes the Nottingham Forest squad should not hold back in their next meeting with owner Evangelos Marinakis over his trigger happy approach to managers. In the early hours of Thursday morning, Forest confirmed Sean Dyche had been relieved of his position as head coach .

Dyche arrived at Forest in October as the third permanent manager of the season after Marinakis had already sacked Ange Postecoglou and Nuno Espirito Santo . Dyche recorded 10 victories in his 25 matches, but the 0-0 home draw over Wolverhampton Wanderers proved to be his final match at the club.

Vitor Pereira is poised to become Forest's fourth manager of the campaign, following Santo, Postecoglou and Dyche, with the former Wolves chief on the verge of signing a deal running until the summer of 2027. Addressing Forest's most recent managerial change, former Newcastle United striker Alan Shearer referenced an alleged post-match gathering which took place shortly before Marinakis opted to sack Dyche.

Speaking on the Rest is Football podcast , Shearer said: "There are reports, and it looks as if they're pretty solid, that he gets a players' committee in and speaks to the players and finds out what they feel, and by all accounts that's what he did last evening after the game."

Lineker then replied: "After the game he brings in the players, probably a couple of them who might not be in the starting line-up. You know what footballers are like.

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"If you're in the team, you're generally happy with the manager; if you're not, you're not. In the big scheme of things players will also look for an excuse, they might blame the manager."

Shearer then added: "But he has to take his responsibility for his recruitment of managers, I mean come on! If you're looking at Ange and looking at Nuno and looking at Sean Dyche and now you're looking for your fourth manager in a season.

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"Sometimes you have to say to yourself: 'Am I doing my job right?' And clearly he's not. So he has to take his share of the blame."

Espirito Santo, Postecoglou and Dyche represent contrasting types of managers in their own right and embrace different approaches to the game. The same applies to Pereira, who is an energetic, attacking-minded coach who prefers his side to play with intensity and maintain possession.

"Also the way he's flip-flopped from styles," Lineker concluded. "Obviously Nuno plays in a counter-attacking way, Ange plays very much on the front foot; then he goes back to a style with Sean Dyche - the players will be going 'What? Who's coming next?'

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"Vitor Pereira played quite a high press at times for Wolves. Are they going to change again? And then you're going to blame the players.

"I think if the players had the balls in a committee meeting and said to him 'Hang on a minute mate, you need to decide what f****ing style of football you actually want us to play' rather than changing it and flip-flopping 14 times - I dunno, I exaggerate."

Forest return to action with a trip to Fenerbahce for the first leg of their Europa League play-off on Thursday, February 19, before welcoming Liverpool to the City Ground in the Premier League three days afterwards.

Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle for the 2025/26 season, saving members £336 and offering more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.