The Warm-Up: Jose Mourinho left red faced as angry Lionel Messi turns air blue

It seems Jose Mourinho is refusing to learn an important lesson: picking fights with vulnerable targets is an extremely bad look. Eva Carneiro was the unwitting figure who derailed Mourinho last season and after turning his guns on Chris Smalling and Luke Shaw the Manchester United manager is starting to look very silly again.

If you recall, the two defenders were publicly chastised by Mourinho after last weekend's win over Swansea for not being part of "the brave" element of his squad, having dared to inform him they were unfit to play. It was a transparent accusation of cowardice which is now collapsing in a big way.

The PFA yesterday saw fit to criticise Mourinho's handling of players who have "personal problems", most obviously Shaw, who is still presumably dealing with the trauma of the horrific double leg break which almost ended the career of one of England's best prospects. In fact, he is reporting pain in the very same leg.

And now the back page of the Mail reports that Mourinho has been left embarrassed by the news that Smalling "has broken a toe so badly in two places that he will be absent for the next four weeks". So yeah, maybe not a bad idea to sit out a gimme against Swansea.

Still though lads, can we have more bravery? And while you're at it, some good old fashioned passion too. Understanding, meanwhile, seems to be in short supply.

Neymar is 24. After scoring in a 3-0 win over Argentina in World Cup qualifying last night, Neymar can now boast of 50 international goals in 74 games for Brazil. This is not normal. At all.

The regularity with which teams play friendlies in the modern era has enabled some impressive goal scoring feats from otherwise rather average players - Miroslav Klose with 71 for Germany, Robbie Keane with 68 for Ireland, Wayne Roo... okay, okay, what we saying about easy targets? - but this is really something else.

Social media works itself into a frenzy every time he scores for Brazil and inches his tally up by another goal or two, but hitting 50 is a good moment to reflect on how ridiculous his record really is. Romario (55), Ronaldo (62) and Pele (77) are the immortals ahead of him whose tallies will be eclipsed in no time.

The first football YouTube phenom is going to score 100 goals for Brazil. At least millennials will have this to cling to when the world is crumbling around them.

PS. Coutinho did this:

PPS. That’s five wins in five for new coach Tite after replacing Dunga.

PPPS. Argentina are now SIXTH in the CONMEBOL World cup qualifying table, outside even the play-off spot. Lionel Messi has described this, quite rightly, as a ‘crappy’ situation.

What is the precise opposite of the elephant in the room? To save you grappling with your clumsy animal metaphors - you aren't David Attenborough pal - let The Warm-Up tell you. Wayne Rooney, it's Wayne Rooney.

The subject that no one can stop talking about in football, no matter what else is going on, Rooney is back on the back pages after Gareth Southgate confirmed he will start against Scotland and captain England at Wembley - presumably as a replacement for No. 10 Dele Alli, who is ruled out with injury.

Serious times call for serious measures, and in light of events in the United States it is only right that we turn to steady leadership in these uncertain days. Factor in the potential disrespect to the poppy represented by the act of allowing Jordan Henderson to wear the armband when our most decorated player sits it out and you can see why Southgate has sought comfort in Rooney after dropping him for the 0-0 in Slovenia last time out.

Just steel yourself for a night of coverage devoted to Wazza - just like any other England game really. Or any match involving Manchester United.

Also of import: if Southgate gets a win he basically gets the England job on a full-time basis.

Brazil's new mascot will hunt you down and lacerate you with its razor-sharp beak. And if you fall asleep, it will invade your nightmares and peck your soul to bits.

Time to blow our own trumpets a bit here but did you see our spoof of the John Lewis Christmas ad?

"The scenes so typically Scottish" – a phrase which now conjures up images of a Chris Iwelumo horror miss, or Nicola Sturgeon clutching a bottle of Irn Bru as she tweets congratulations to Andy Murray. But in 1977 it meant storming the Wembley pitch after beating England and snapping the crossbar - according to John Motson at least.

Real football!! England v Scotland kicks off at 7.45pm tonight and we will have two reporters at Wembley holding a Facebook Live broadcast when the teams are announced. So watch out for that. France are also playing Sweden and Germany travel to San Marino looking to hit double figures in the other two games we are covering live this evening on the website.