It is no secret that Nottingham Forest manager Aitor Karanka is a believer in building his successful sides on a strong defence. 

The former Middlesbrough manager brought Premier League football back to the Riverside Stadium and that success was largely due to a watertight defence, which remained solid in the top flight.

He will no doubt be looking to do the same at the City Ground and despite the host of new arrivals that came through the door during the January transfer window, only one central defender was signed.

Tobias Figueiredo, who comes highly rated and has represented Portugal in the Olympics, came in to bolster Karanka's central defensive options but one man who will still need to be relied on heavily is former Chelsea defender Michael Mancienne.

His form has been erratic this season and we at FLW feel that there are better options out there that Forest should pursue in the summer transfer window so we've taken a closer look at two of them...

Having come so close to promotion to the Premier League last season, Reading have endured an awful 2017/18 campaign but Moore is one man who has kept his performance level up.

There was talk of him leaving the club in the January transfer window and he would no doubt attract a great deal of interest from other second tier sides if the Royals did let him go, potentially after having dropped into League One given their current form and tough upcoming fixtures.

Karanka did wonders for another young, promising English centre-half in Ben Gibson at Boro, and I'm sure he would be looking to convince Moore that he could do similar for his career.

Bartley made a massive difference to Leeds United's backline last season - you only have to look at their current defensive troubles to see that - but since returning to Swansea, he hasn't been able to nail down a starting place.

That means he should be looking for a move in the summer and he strikes me as a typical Karanka defender.

He is no-nonsense, strong in the air and bolstering the backline would allow Karanka to set Forest up in his preferred style - defending deep and counter attacking.

Forest fans - what do you make of these suggestions? Let us know in the comments below...