A less-than-forthcoming Jose Mourinho made for an awkward eight and a half minutes in his press conference on Friday, as the Manchester United manager admitted that his side's form was unacceptable but refused to go into detail about why they had stuttered of late.

Read here the full transcript of what Mourinho said ahead of Saturday evening's meeting with Newcastle United at Old Trafford...

Why are things not working as you'd like them to work?

Mourinho: For many different reasons.

Can you tell us some of those reasons?

Mourinho: No.

You've had a great home record wherever you've been as a manager - how important is it to return to that?

Mourinho: Very important, I know we are in the beginning of October and we look to tables all around Europe and, in many of the leagues, the tables in September, October don't reflect what is going to happen in a few months, or even in the end of the season. But we are in a position that we can do much better than that and to do that we need points, points that we lost especially in the last two Premier League matches with one point out of six and we know that to improve that position we need to win these three points.

But we know that our opposition for different reasons also need points, [Newcastle have a] very, very, very good coach, a team that is always very well organised, especially against the teams from the first part of the table where their manager is very bright on his analysis of the opponent’s qualities and to try to stop them. The results they had against the top teams didn't get them points yet this season but gave them very, very close results and very difficult matches for the opposition. So we expect a difficult match.

Not won at home since the opening day - important to repay the fans?

Mourinho: Yeah, that's true. Only one defeat at home all season, only one defeat in the last seven matches but not victories at home in the past three matches, three draws, not the feeling of the defeat but not the happiness of the victory so yes it is important for us to try to win this match on Saturday.