Blackburn Rovers manager Tony Mowbray has suggested that he believes striker Sam Gallagher's slow start to the season is down to the lack of game time he enjoyed last campaign whilst at Southampton in the Premier League.

Gallagher was made Blackburn's main summer transfer target to strengthen their forward options and offer support to Danny Graham, and the striker has already proven himself at Ewood Park having scored 12 goals for Rovers during a loan spell from Southampton in the 2016/17 campaign.

Mowbray would therefore have been confident that Gallagher would be ready to come in and make an instant impact at the start of this season, but the 24-year-old has so far failed to register a league goal in Rovers' opening ten matches with the striker spending a lot of time out on the right-wing at times in the opening weeks of the season.

Gallagher endured a frustrating season last term, having returned to Southampton following a productive loan spell at Birmingham City, but the forward saw his game time limited last term managing to play under 150 minutes for the Premier League side.

Speaking to the Lancashire Telegraph ahead of Blackburn's trip to Queens Park Rangers on Saturday, Mowbray suggested that he believes Gallagher's lack of form is down to his lack of game time last term and that he backs him to find form, saying "Ultimately Sam was brought here as a centre forward and he has to score goals.

"I think Sam is probably suffering from a lack of games in the last few years in my opinion.

"He probably fell through the cracks at Southampton, always on the bench, always an unused sub, missing the Under-23s game in midweek.

"Then week after week goes by and you don’t actually get minutes on the pitch.

"Longer-term I’m confident Sam will come good and score goals."

The Verdict

Gallagher's lack of form in front of goal at the start of the season will be a concern to Rovers and their supporters, with the club showing a lot of faith in the 24-year-old to come and be a reliable scorer who could make the difference for them in tight matches.

However, the 24-year-old's form will not be helped by being used out of his position on the right-wing at times by Mowbray. Rovers might need to start using him in his more natural centre forward position so that he can find some form, and although he is flexible enough to play in different positions it will not be helping him re-find his form.

Mowbray is right to believe that Gallagher will eventually in the long run manage to find some form, with the striker already proving he is a capable scorer in the Championship in a few loan spells in the division. He is probably just in need of that first goal to get his confidence back up and running.