The Tanner Report: Barnsley 1 Fulham 0

Pargie called to say Fulham were joint favourites with Leeds to win the Championship but watch out for Barnsley. Under new manager Daniel Stendel they not only won promotion from League One but were unbeaten at home.

Fulham were never at the races and could have lost by more than 1-0. Although conceding just the one the defence that leaked 81 goals last season – the highest in any European top flight division – still look prone to error with one centre back Max Le Marchand falling over and Alfie Mawson not closing down the onrushing Luke Thomas who scored for the Tykes.

I was cautiously optimistic for the season as we had at our disposal ten of the promotion team of 2 years ago (Bettinelli, Odoi, Ream, Cairney, MacDonald, Johansen, Kamara, Mitrovic, Kebano and Ayite) and Joe Bryan and Alfie Mawson would surely look classier in the Championship.

Add to this wide players Cavaleiro and Anthony Knockaert and the squad is looking strong but – and it’s a big but – no improvements yet for the defence and no holding midfielder with bite and pace.

Also we are playing at a three-sided Craven Cottage with the Riverside stand being knocked down and rebuilt and Ryan Sessegnon wants to go.

It’s early days but we miss Callum Chambers who had returned to Arsenal and just about the only Fulham player to improve in the course of last season and are still prone to defensive error.

The window closes on Thursday so still time for Scott Parker, head coach, to address this.