Saturday’s briefing: Ruben Amorim looks to move on from Grimsby debacle

Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim put his post-match comments from Wednesday’s Carabao Cup defeat to Grimsby down to emotion.

The international break looms as Thomas Tuchel made his England squad announcement ahead of their upcoming World Cup qualifiers, while Xavi Simons officially joined Tottenham.

Amorim admits emotion

Manchester United boss Amorim admitted his post-match comments after Wednesday’s shock Carabao Cup defeat to League Two Grimsby were down to emotion.

Amorim said afterwards “something has to change” at Old Trafford and that the players’ performance “spoke really loud”.

Speculation swirled around Amorim’s comments, but the United boss – speaking ahead of Saturday’s home match with Burnley – insisted his responses boiled down to emotion.

“Every time in the future we have one defeat like that I’m going to be like that, I’m going to say sometimes I hate my players, sometimes I love my players, sometimes I defend my players,” Amorim said.

“This is my way of doing things and I’m going to be like that. And I felt that in that moment I was so frustrated and annoyed.

“Sometimes I want to quit, sometimes I want to be here for 20 years. Sometimes I love to be with my players, sometimes I don’t want to be with them. I need to improve on that, it’s going to be hard but now I’m focused on the next game.”

Tuchel selects England squad

Nottingham Forest midfielder Elliot Anderson and Tottenham full-back Djed Spence earned their maiden England call-ups for September’s World Cup qualifiers.

But Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jack Grealish, Phil Foden and Kyle Walker were left out of the squad for the games against Andorra and Serbia.

Tuchel said: “These are the decisions. There had to be some difficult calls. You wanted to do it because we wanted a tighter squad, more competition.

“I kind of like it. The competition is on. I don’t like the phone calls, but I kind of like them, because it just shows we have players pushing and we have players fighting for the squad.

“That’s exactly what we want.”

Simons signs for Spurs

Tottenham bolstered their attacking options with the signing of Xavi Simons from RB Leipzig.

The PA news agency understands the 22-year-old has joined Spurs in a 60million euros (£51.8m) deal.

Simons’ arrival is a boost for head coach Thomas Frank after Tottenham’s recent failed pursuits of Morgan Gibbs-White and Eberechi Eze.

Simons told the club’s website: “I’m really happy and can’t wait to get going. I’ve been dreaming of this for a long time. It’s a great club and when I met the head coach I knew straight away that this was the right place for me.”

What’s on today?

A west London derby kicks off Saturday’s Premier League action as Chelsea face Fulham, while Leeds host Newcastle in the evening televised fixture.

All eyes will be on Old Trafford at 3pm as Amorim’s Manchester United look for their first win of the season at home to Burnley, while the other top-flight fixtures see Sunderland host Brentford, Tottenham welcome Bournemouth to north London and Everton travel to Wolves.

Championship high-fliers Middlesbrough face bottom-of-the-table Sheffield United, leaders Stoke host fellow unbeaten rivals West Brom and Wrexham travel to Millwall in a packed schedule in the EFL.