Chris Hughton has explained his decision to drop Loic Mbe Soh for Tobias Figueiredo against Birmingham City at the weekend.

Hughton's decision to leave Mbe Soh out of the side raised eyebrows before the game, after a couple of impressive performances of late.

The young defender looked largely solid in the win over Sheffield Wednesday and the draw at Millwall, despite making a slight defensive error against the latter which led to Tom Bradshaw's goal.

Figueiredo came in to the side at the weekend, though, with the Portuguese centre-half being selected to play alongside Joe Worrall.

Figueiredo is a player who has come under a lot of criticism this season. His performances have been slightly hit and miss, and his form has dipped despite an impressive campaign last term.

Speaking to BBC Radio Nottingham, though, Hughton explained his decision to bring Figueiredo in for Mbe Soh.

He said: "It was tactical. Sometimes you make changes for rotation or lack of form, but this was tactical for the type of game and type of individuals."

The Verdict

Mbe Soh can feel slightly hard done by after being left out of the team yesterday.

He made a slight mistake against Millwall, but on the whole, he has been impressive in these last two games and has barely put a foot wrong.

Figueiredo and Worrall were both solid yesterday, though. They nullified Birmingham to very few chances and dealt with their physical threat.

Forest have a large squad and squad rotation is key, especially at this stage of the season, but it's also good to have a settled defence who have a good understanding with one another.