Jamie Carragher says he feels like Jose Mourinho is already 'hanging on by his fingernails' at Real Madrid - despite only taking charge for his second spell at the club in the summer.

Real Madrid beat Roma 4-3 at Stadio Olimpico on Wednesday night to maintain their 100 per cent start to the Champions League group stage, thanks to goals from Kylian Mbappe, Carlos Espi, Endrick and Antonio Rudiger.

But Mourinho's side were 3-1 down with eight minutes of normal time still to play before Espi, who was signed from Levante this summer, kickstarted a dramatic comeback. And Liverpool icon Carragher, speaking on CBS Sports, says he has a key concern about Mourinho's position already.

'Play the game of being a Real Madrid coach' - Carragher sums up Mourinho's biggest issue

CBS Sports host Kate Scott posed the question to Carragher about it feeling unusual that a Real Madrid team look so poor defensively under Mourinho, and asked whether Real have the identity of a Mourinho team as yet.

"No. I think it's very difficult for them to get it, because you've got so many great attacking players," Carragher replied. "When you go to a club of that size, you have to play them. It's not a case of you think, 'Okay, I'll take an attacking player out and maybe put an extra midfielder there'.

"I think it's difficult for almost manager to go to Real Madrid and be themselves. They almost have to play the game of being a Real Madrid coach. We know Jose Mourinho is a proper structured, organised coach - you see that throughout his career. But even he can't be that at Real Madrid.

"And it just feels like, even in these early weeks of the season, he's hanging on by his fingernails, of they're getting last-minute goals, comebacks. They don't look convincing at all, really. But they're just doing enough where you can't feel like it's falling apart, or it's not working. They're just hanging on in there.

"There's obviously a big points gap to Barcelona [in La Liga]. They play them at the weekend - if that goes badly wrong, as you'd probably expect it to - probably the league title is over at this stage. But he's got to try and hang in there as long as he possibly can, and maybe get something from the season in terms of a trophy. Because this Real Madrid team is into year three now without a trophy."

What Jose Mourinho said after Roma victory

Speaking after the match, Mourinho described Roma as 'incredibly strong and formidable' but said that, despite Real's poor first half, he predicted that his side would come back.

"I always think about meritocracy, but football is a 90-minute game and, at the highest level, it's strategic," he told reporters. "The opponents matter and play too, and today's opponent was incredibly strong and a formidable team.

"I knew their energy would run out. It's impossible to play 90 minutes at the pace they play. I made the changes I thought I should make, but I must say that, in the first half, they overpowered us and surprised us ... in the second half, we reorganised, and when we were stable, we conceded a goal we shouldn't have.

"Then came the third, and if they had scored four or five, people would say I'm crazy. We won 4-3, and they say I did very poorly in the first half with the line-up we played. That's football. In the end, Inter and Roma, the two strongest teams in Italy - six points."