On the contrary, it sounds like we mostly agree that it's a personnel choice. Fair to say that if Graham was on the pitch instead of Gallagher a few of the crosses we put in may have found their way into the net? Or perhaps he manages to lay off a ball to Dack for a clear strike on goal. It's funny because even though there has been criticism of TM not putting players into the team from the get go, I actually think we would have been better off with Graham up front for these first few matches and integrating Gallagher after we had a few points on the board and a bit of confidence flowing. Now granted even with Graham on the pitch we may have lost to both Charlton and Fulham, but I think we'd have had a better shots on target ratio than 8%.

17 points from 57 (19 games).

I agree Williams is not the main problem at all, the manager is. Williams is a solid enough backup CB and I don't have a problem with him in that role at all. I will have a problem if when Lenihan is fit he is on the bench and Williams is ahead of him though. If Mowbray doesn't consider Lenihan necessarily any better than Williams in that role then it means we should have been after at least two CB's in the summer, not just one. I'm not sure our attacking play is the problem tbh. We scored plenty of goals last season and we've had plenty of chances on goal in the first couple of matches, we've just had very few on target, which again points to poor personnel choice by the manager. Graham and Dack had a great link up last season and we need Graham back starting asap IMO.

Yeah, but would you have been happy with Derrick Williams as first choice CB for the next campaign at the end of last season? Our expectations are getting lower and lower. At the end of last season and even coming towards the end of this window we were being seen as dark horses for playoffs and people were backing that. Now it feels like people will soon be saying 21st is a good season and a job well done Mr Mowbray. It's worrying.

“That’s football,” Mowbray said of allowing Mulgrew to leave and Lenihan picking up an injury. “It’s early season, I don’t think central defence was a problem. “I thought they applied themselves well. “They all need to develop relationships and when Lenihan gets himself fit and comes back then he will have to compete to get in the team.” Bloody hell, sounds like Del is now first choice CB even when Lenihan returns from injury!

J*B's 11 v 11 post from a couple of days ago had Brereton on left wing, which I commented on at the time as being a bit weird. It might be that Tony actually wants him to play there.

I wonder if Lenihan and Nyambe backed Mulgrew?

Managed a 0-0 today despite having 5 shots to Coventry's 24. They are lucky the standard in League 1 is so poor.

And keep in mind most of those points came from dead rubbers at the end of last season.

The thing is, the result and performance in isolation isn't so bad. People were predicting we'd get thumped and we "only" lost 2-0 and remained fairly competitive for most of the match. Fine. Fulham have a lot of top Championship players so you can accept that. But no shots on target? That is unacceptable. In the first two matches we've had 23 shots on goal 2 have been on target. That's a dire 8.7%. Danny Graham has to start the next match. Not saying any of this is Gallagher's fault but we need somebody on the pitch who can shoot between the goalposts and the crossbar, and none of our current lot are doing that. If we don't start hitting the target and continue conceding two goals a game we are going down, it's that simple.

Mowbray is just a very poor tactician tbh. He knows one style and if that doesn't work he's flummoxed. His attempts at trying three at the back have always been comical, with the lads looking like they'd had the formation sprung on them as they exited the tunnel.

Trying to be optimistic here lads. Jeez.

Two shots on target in 180 minutes of football. One goal. Four conceded. No points. Great start to the season.

Good teams make their own luck. Not getting a single shot on target isn't unlucky. Big performance needed in the second half. Get Graham on.

Early indications suggest you shouldn't get your hopes up. 45 minutes to try and salvage something from the first two games of the season, even if it's only a point. Parker's Fulham are there for the taking but concede again and it's game over. With that said don't we have a horrifically poor record in recent times of coming from behind to get anything from games? Also thus far no shots on target... Do we practice shooting in training? Only managed two out of fourteen on target last week. Suffice to say we aren't last season's Norwich. We'll be doing well when we hit the target with one of our shots. Literally can't score otherwise. Get Danny Graham on the pitch ffs, at least he has a track record of scoring.

Same old pattern. We look half decent then concede. The more people posted about how well we were playing the more i knew the inevitable was coming. Wonder how many clean sheets we'll get this season? More than single figures?

I'm sure they exist but I'd advise against asking for them here, or...

Guys, there are no legal streams available for this match so please stop asking. Thanks

Might be why Tony has started him to be fair. Laughing maniacally as he penned Rothwell's name onto the team sheet.

And this is why many of us voted the transfer window as bad rather than average.

Pleasantly surprised to see Rothwell starting. Also surprised Gallagher retains his place.

Lenihan has had serious injury issues for two seasons in a row so Tony can't cry bad luck on this one I'm afraid. That's assuming he is injured and there aren't other reasons behind he and Nyambe's absence.

Nope, it's just taking a common thread between the two clubs and stripping it of all context. Reductio ad absurdum. Leeds don't need to throw new players in straight away because they already have a good team that regularly wins matches. We don't. They don't have a pressing need for new, better players and we do, so the 'correct' choice is not just one option for all scenarios.

They won their opening game 3-1 and came 3rd last season so it's not exactly the same situation, is it?

Have to admit I don't think it was necessary to say that either. Not sure what he thinks being so dismissive will achieve. He could have just as easily said "we've got a young lad with potential who had an excellent season out on loan last year, and now an experienced Championship left back in the squad as well, so competition for that place is really solid". I'd disagree with him but it gets the point across without throwing in the dismissive "boy who was on loan at Southend" remark which comes across a bit snidey. I don't know if he just doesn't think before he speaks or whether he gets a kick out of talking down our youngsters.