Nottingham Forest head coach Sabri Lamouchi says it was simply “his choice” to leave full-back Yuri Ribeiro out of his matchday squad.
The Portuguese was a regular for the Reds last season and had started last weekend’s Carabao Cup defeat at Barnsley.
But he was one of four changes made by Lamouchi for his team’s opening Championship game, away to QPR.
Summer signing Tyler Blackett stepped in at left-back in Ribeiro’s absence, as Forest fell to a 2-0 defeat at Loftus Road.
Joao Carvalho and Fouad Bachirou also missed out in the capital, while Sammy Ameobi dropped to the bench as Joe Worrall, Joe Lolley, Luke Freeman and Jack Colback came into the side.
“It was a choice,” Lamouchi said of Ribeiro.
“Probably it was the wrong choice. After the result, then you are always right or not with the line-up.
“We didn’t lose the game because of those single details.
"But we lost and we need to know why and how.”
The visitors fell behind to a Lyndon Dykes penalty in the second half, after the Rangers man had been hauled down by Tobias Figueiredo.
It sparked a response, but Forest could not find the back of the net and Ilias Chair made certain of the win in added time.
“After the penalty we started to play in a different way and created more,” Lamouchi added.
“We can’t wait to concede to play - and we can’t concede an easy goal like that.”
