diff --git a/src/core/mount.c b/src/core/mount.c
index 0b57f89c29..a70013cecf 100644
--- a/src/core/mount.c
+++ b/src/core/mount.c
@@ -428,7 +428,7 @@ static bool mount_is_extrinsic(Mount *m) {
 }
 
 static int mount_add_default_dependencies(Mount *m) {
-        const char *after, *before;
+        const char *after, *before, *e;
         UnitDependencyMask mask;
         MountParameters *p;
         bool nofail;
@@ -452,7 +452,16 @@ static int mount_add_default_dependencies(Mount *m) {
         mask = m->from_fragment ? UNIT_DEPENDENCY_FILE : UNIT_DEPENDENCY_MOUNTINFO_DEFAULT;
         nofail = m->from_fragment ? fstab_test_yes_no_option(m->parameters_fragment.options, "nofail\0" "fail\0") : false;
 
-        if (mount_is_network(p)) {
+        e = path_startswith(m->where, "/sysroot");
+        if (e && in_initrd()) {
+                /* All mounts under /sysroot need to happen later, at initrd-fs.target time. IOW,
+                 * it's not technically part of the basic initrd filesystem itself, and so
+                 * shouldn't inherit the default Before=local-fs.target dependency. */
+
+                after = NULL;
+                before = isempty(e) ? SPECIAL_INITRD_ROOT_FS_TARGET : SPECIAL_INITRD_FS_TARGET;
+
+        } else if (mount_is_network(p)) {
                 /* We order ourselves after network.target. This is
                  * primarily useful at shutdown: services that take
                  * down the network should order themselves before
@@ -487,9 +496,11 @@ static int mount_add_default_dependencies(Mount *m) {
                         return r;
         }
 
-        r = unit_add_dependency_by_name(UNIT(m), UNIT_AFTER, after, true, mask);
-        if (r < 0)
-                return r;
+        if (after) {
+                r = unit_add_dependency_by_name(UNIT(m), UNIT_AFTER, after, true, mask);
+                if (r < 0)
+                        return r;
+        }
 
         r = unit_add_two_dependencies_by_name(UNIT(m), UNIT_BEFORE, UNIT_CONFLICTS, SPECIAL_UMOUNT_TARGET, true, mask);
         if (r < 0)
diff --git a/src/fstab-generator/fstab-generator.c b/src/fstab-generator/fstab-generator.c
index 08c7b76dba..16be342dbf 100644
--- a/src/fstab-generator/fstab-generator.c
+++ b/src/fstab-generator/fstab-generator.c
@@ -391,12 +391,6 @@ static int add_mount(
                 "SourcePath=%s\n",
                 source);
 
-        /* All mounts under /sysroot need to happen later, at initrd-fs.target time. IOW, it's not
-         * technically part of the basic initrd filesystem itself, and so shouldn't inherit the default
-         * Before=local-fs.target dependency. */
-        if (in_initrd() && path_startswith(where, "/sysroot"))
-                fprintf(f, "DefaultDependencies=no\n");
-
         if (STRPTR_IN_SET(fstype, "nfs", "nfs4") && !(flags & AUTOMOUNT) &&
             fstab_test_yes_no_option(opts, "bg\0" "fg\0")) {
                 /* The default retry timeout that mount.nfs uses for 'bg' mounts
@@ -411,9 +405,6 @@ static int add_mount(
                 SET_FLAG(flags, NOFAIL, true);
         }
 
-        if (!(flags & NOFAIL) && !(flags & AUTOMOUNT))
-                fprintf(f, "Before=%s\n", post);
-
         if (!(flags & AUTOMOUNT) && opts) {
                  r = write_after(f, opts);
                  if (r < 0)