PARIS - When a club as big as Real Madrid lose two of their first four league games of the season, talk of a crisis is never far behind.
So it is a major test of the mettle of their coach Jose Mourinho as to how he lifts his star-studded side up from the disappointment of the latest defeat at Sevilla for tomorrow's Champions League opener with big-spending Manchester City.
Mourinho, of course, is a seasoned campaigner at this level, as one of only three men — alongside Ernst Happel and Ottmar Hitzfeld — to have lifted Europe's ultimate prize with two different clubs, Porto and Inter Milan.
But expectations in Madrid are high, with the fans desperate to end their 10-year drought and finally collect their 10th European crown.
Yet all is clearly not well behind the scenes at the Bernabeu, with Cristiano Ronaldo offering only the most muted of celebrations for his brace of goals against Granada and then declaring himself to be "sad".
New signing Luca Modric is slowly finding his feet, but Mesut Ozil, one of the driving forces of last season's run to the semi-finals and the league title, has looked tired and out of sorts.
With Ozil and Ronaldo both misfiring, much rests on the shoulders of playmaker Xabi Alonso and French frontman Karim Benzema to reproduce the home form that saw Real fire in 24 goals in their six Champions League home games last season. Mourinho made no excuses for losing in Sevilla.
"It's a general state of mind," he said. "At the moment there aren't many of them out there thinking that football is the priority in their lives. I could only count on two or three of them."
But he refused to single out Ronaldo for criticism.
"There is no connection between the rumours in the press these past weeks and our poor performances. We were already bad against Getafe and even against Granda (where Real won 3-0)," he said.