Richard Buxton: No joy to the world, Jose’s time is near

Jose Mourinho will relish crossing the days off his calendar over the next few weeks.

Christmas cannot arrive, or end, quickly enough for the Manchester United manager.

GROUP H

MAN UNITED

YOUNG BOYS

The "most wonderful time of the year" promises to be the most testing of his current tenure, with the festive period set to determine how the Red Devils' season will be defined.

By the time the Twelve Days of Christmas arrive, United could conceivably find themselves out of the Champions League and struggling to reclaim a place at its top table next season.

Progress to the latter stages of Europe's elite competition is still uncertain, while clashes with a resurgent Arsenal and Liverpool in the coming month could kill off their top-four hopes.

Little cheer, let alone of the festive variety, can currently be found at Old Trafford.

Not only has Mourinho presided over the club's worst start to a league season since 1990, but he has also plunged the Theatre of Dreams' joylessness into fresh depths with highly damning statistics.

His side have now dropped a combined 11 points in all competitions at home this season and failed to find the target on four occasions out of nine previous outings - a stark contrast to their rivals in the EPL's current top six achieving this feat collectively only five times.

Somewhat predictably, Mourinho chooses to wage war on those firmly in his crosshairs.

As they prepare for Young Boys' visit, United's own kids still find themselves in the firing line.Luke Shaw, Anthony Martial, Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford seem like stepsons that their manager appears incapable of loving.

At given opportunities, he routinely admonishes them.

Character has become his personal buzzword for inadequacy.

The quartet continue to score goals at will, defend diligently and produce moments that have purists of the fabled "United way" synonymous with both Sir Alex Ferguson and Matt Busby salivating at the mere prospect.

However, they will never win over the man whose approval they crave most.

Little imagination was required as to which players incurred their manager's ire after United extended their winless run to eight games with last Saturday's stalemate with Crystal Palace.

Creating an enemy within has provided mixed fortunes for Mourinho.

At Inter Milan, it helped foster a team spirit that spurred them onto unprecedented success both in the Champions League and the home front, while Chelsea and Real Madrid can attest to its polarising impact.

Thiago Motta witnessed that siege-mentality complex first-hand at the San Siro, but his logic that winning staves off the Special One's sullen disposition no longer rings true.

Even victory, the uncompromising bedrock of Mourinho's identity, now brings out his confrontational side.

Like Chelsea, the second time around, and at the Bernabeu, United threaten to be another nut that Mourinho's tough-love approach is incapable of breaking.

His one-in-three success rate is unlikely to be improved upon with England's most successful but now fallen club.

Unless his methods start producing tangible success, continually pursuing the incendiary option will only end with the fate which inevitably befell him in two of his previous jobs.

Mourinho firmly believes that United will be back in the top four by Christmas time.

If the current seven-point shortfall cannot be bridged, a New Year may require a fresh approach, with or without him.