Ruben reveals this week's message to the players

His message highlights the positive mood in our camp following a transformative summer at the club and last weekend’s encouraging performance against Arsenal on matchday one. 

As Ruben explained during our latest interview at Carrington, this week’s communication with the players has been clear and upbeat. “I think we maintained the same message,” said the boss, with a smile.

“We showed the good things, we showed the things that we need to improve, we have time now to do that and then you need to feel really excited to see the team again. And that is the feeling in the moment.

“We go to the games, we know that it is really tough every week and the pressure is there. But, in this moment, I am here today, I feel really excited to see the team again and that is a very good feeling.”

Speaking to us on Friday afternoon, Ruben revealed how the rest of his weekend looked and why the quality of our group is leading to difficult decisions.

“It is just to finalise the starting XI, it has been hard in this beginning of the season and that is a good thing,” he explained. 

“I arrange everything for the training, all the information and trying to be really basic on the information. So, all the sheets, trying to put that into six sentences for them, and then it is just the final training [session] and travel to London.” 

Sunday’s game at Craven Cottage represents a different challenge to last weekend’s opener against Arsenal and Amorim is full of respect for the opposition. 

“It is a really hard game,” said Ruben. “Marco Silva is a really smart coach, a really good coach, they have an identity, they have played together for a while.

“But I am more concerned about our team. We need to understand the opponent but we need to do the right things and to be consistent compared to the last game. 

“That is really important, because in the end you cannot control the result, but everything we do to get the result is in our control and we are doing everything.”

This is also our first away match of the season and Ruben wants to impress our unrivalled travelling supporters. “They are amazing and they showed last season. We won last year on that pitch but we want to play so much better. 

“Again, we don’t control the results, but we want our fans to feel really proud of our team and that we are going to do everything to try to win the game and have a very good performance.” 

Watch part two of Ruben's press conference from 22:30 BST on Saturday.