Yates opened the scoring as Forest won 3-0 on Thursday night.
“I have been very fortunate to get to know some of the legends over the last few years,” said Dyche. “They are great people, as well as having been great players.
“They will know what Yatesy is about. He is a proper professional and he deserves a lot of credit since I have been here, and many managers before have also spoken about him. It was a very good performance from him.
“I have only been here a short while, but there seems to be a good connection between the fans and all of the players - no matter whether they are homegrown. But the idea of Yatesy and the way he has gone about his business with this football club is an obvious marker with how the fans think and care.
“Don’t forget the history of this club; I played at a time when it was regular for young players to be pushed through the system and put into the system. It is getting harder and harder to do that, everyone will tell you.
“If you look around the Premier League there are not many 17 or 18-year-olds playing, like there was back then because the demand is so high. On the other hand, it still means you can grow inside of a football club. Yatesy is certainly one who has shown that.”
A captain's performance
Dyche also said, "There were so many good performances. The two centre-backs (Milenkovic and Morato) were terrific. Murillo filled in at left-back and young Zach Abbott at right-back.
"And Yatesy of course, it was a captain’s performance - as they used to say in old money. And he got a goal to boot.
“There was a lot of noise about both ends of the pitch when I got here. The defensive side hadn’t been performing like it had been last season; we are correcting that slowly but surely. There are good signs with that.
“The defensive unit was excellent against Liverpool and they were again.
“There was also talk about not scoring many goals from free play. All of a sudden, we have corrected that.
“The players deserve a massive amount of credit. I have always said that we can only guide them in the right direction, we can’t put the ball in the net for them.
“We are scoring varied goals. Not every goal can be a beautiful goal. I have spoken to the players about that and about finding scraps in the box, because they all count over a season. To change the way they can score a goal is really important, and I think the players are doing really well with that.”