JOSE MOURINHO was in the crowd, Greg Rusedski was lobbing verbal hand grenades and John McEnroe was telling him to take a break.

Andy Murray is never short of attention, criticism or advice. He may do best to listen to a fellow countryman who has some experience of the vagaries of the sporting world. Part of the "gold dust" imparted by Sir Alex Ferguson is never to be too carried away by either defeat or victory.

The thrashing by Roger Federer at the O2 Arena on Thursday night is the sort of result that produces a shockwave. Murray, after all, has not been beaten 6-0, 6-1 for seven years and he was plainly carrying an injury when incurring that defeat against Novak Djokovic in Monaco.

Murray, though, needs a time for reflection before the first major test in Melbourne in January. He said immediately after his loss in the Barclays ATP Tour Finals that he intended to head to the courts to practise almost immediately.

McEnroe, now a member of the legends advisory board for the ATP, has cautioned against this approach. "If I were his coach . . . I would definitely take a break. He needs a break," said the seven-time grand slam winner. "He is on the verge of burnout."

He added: "You are talking about a guy who had to play a lot to get there [to the finals]," he said of Murray's frantic six-tournament run to the O2. "He seems to have not much left in the tank, as it turns out. He looked tired."

The comprehensive defeat also produced criticism from Rusedski, former Davis Cup player, who said the Scot had to rediscover the dominant attitude he adopted under his previous coach, Ivan Lendl. There was an implicit criticism that Murray had become passive under new coach Amelie Mauresmo.

McEnroe was more circumspect, saying: "I don't think you can judge by one match but, overall, I think it's been a bit of an uphill battle for him.

"I don't know if he's 100% physically healthy. It seems like he's not quite where he was. Why that is, that's the question but I don't know if even he knows the answer to it."

But has the Mauresmo-Murray partnership been a success?

"I don't like getting people into trouble. It's my job to be honest. I would not call it a roaring success. That would be the simplest way of putting it," said McEnroe. "But that doesn't mean that it shouldn't be given more time. When I played Ivan [Lendl] recently he said that for anything it needs a year or two. So if that's true you've got to give her more time - if people believe that."

Murray was almost incredulous when Rusedski's criticism was put to him. "I don't know to be honest, I wouldn't say that's the case at all really, but Greg obviously has his opinions, on many things, and his job is to express those opinions on TV," he said. "That doesn't mean I have to agree with him, though."

He gathered momentum by saying: "But in a match like today . . . well, wow, what do you want me to do? The guy was half-volleying the ball inside the baseline, so you had no time to react. The ball was coming off the middle of his racket on every single shot, so I'd have been interested to see how Greg would have approached it."

Quite. The first problem for Murray was that Federer is not only in fine form but was playing a match where all the pressure was on his opponent. The greatest player of all time obviously handles pressure well. He is unplayable, though, when unrestrained by the constraints of having to win a match.

The second problem is that the Scot is still far from the elite level of Federer and Djokovic, who will surely contest the final at the O2.

He was competitive against Kei Nishikori, ranked fifth in the world, and he beat Milos Raonic, ranked eighth. The Scot has also done well to regain a ranking that means Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic can be avoided until the quarter-finals of the majors.

But he knows there is a further step to be taken. He will address fitness and tactics in his training block in Miami. But Murray needs the confidence that success against one of the Big Three will bring.

He is 0-9 against them this season. But he has beaten them a total of 24 times down the years including grand slams and in an Olympic final.

He was brutally frank in a corner of the O2 about his defeat by Federer. "To be honest, I don't care what anyone else says about it, it's about how I deal with it," he said.

The voices were roaring around him. He may be best to reflect on the quiet words of Fergie that a devastating defeat does not require a dramatic over-reaction.