Nuno Espirito Santo shares why he picked £17m Nottingham Forest star vs Ipswich

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Nottingham Forest defeated Ipswich Town in the Premier League on Saturday to get back to winning ways after successive defeats.

The Reds won 1-0 as Chris Wood bagged his ninth goal of the season from the penalty spot just after half-time.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
6	Nottm ForestNottingham Forest	13	6	4	3	16	13	3	22

Wood is now level with Bryan Roy on 24 goals at the top of the goalscoring charts when it comes to goals scored for Forest in the Premier League.

There were a couple of surprises on the team sheet when it was announced and Nuno Espirito Santo has been discussing one of those changes that he made.

• READ MORE: How Steve Cooper convinced Ola Aina to sign for Forest

Why Nuno Espirito Santo chose to start Neco Williams as Forest played Ipswich

Williams came in for a rare start this season on Saturday and it felt like he had been tasked with doing a job on Town winger Omari Hutchinson.

In fairness, he did okay but it did cause a bit of a stir that the very impressive Alex Moreno was dropped to the bench for the contest.

The Forest head coach told Nottinghamshire Live: “Options. We have to understand that it doesn’t really matter who starts if we consider that the squad is there and the players are available.

“Neco did amazing with the national team so had that momentum. As long as we understand this philosophy, I think we’re going to be OK because we have a good squad.”

Williams performance vs Ipswich in numbers

It wasn’t a bad performance from Williams by any stretch, especially considering he’s not played for so long.

Who Scored shows that he completed 85.2% of the passes he attempted and he also whipped in five crosses during his 76-minute outing.

Williams made three tackles and also completed one clearance as he performed his defensive duties very well indeed.

There is more to come from Williams and he will have been frustrated not to have started more games this season.

Still, it was a testament to the 23-year-old that he came in and performed this well given that he’s been out of the reckoning for so long.

Williams is one for the future and it will be interesting to see if he keeps his place against Manchester City on Wednesday.