Man United launch dressing room inquest after ‘unacceptable’ Newcastle United defeat

Man United dropped below Newcastle in the Premier League table following a 2-0 defeat at St James’ Park. Second half goals from Joe Willock and Callum Wilson secured a third straight win for The Magpies as they moved up to third.

It was a deserved victory for the hosts as they enjoyed the vast majority of the chances with The Red Devils being limited to just one tame shot on target from Antony while goalkeeper David De Gea had to make several good saves to prevent Newcastle adding to the scoreline.

But Shaw didn’t feel like it was Newcastle’s ‘quality’ that won them the game, more so their motivation to get three points.

"Not good enough,” he told Sky Sports. “I feel like every time I speak after games I’m always honest, as a team we have to be honest – I don’t think Newcastle won on quality today, they won on desire, passion, hunger, attitude.

"They had a higher motivation than we did. That can’t be possible. I feel I say the same every time we lose. They wanted it more. At Man Utd that shouldn’t be possible.

"It’s unacceptable. It’s not what we want to set out to be. In big games you need that hunger. We didn’t create too much. Maybe you can say it’s been coming.

"Our levels dropped before the international break. We have three days to pick it back up.

"The players had a chat in the changing room after with no staff round. It’s down to us. It was nowhere near good enough. We had to speak out in front of each other.

“It’s important. We’re a team. When we go out onto the pitch, we have to fight for each other. Sometimes it hasn’t looked like that.

“I’m sure we’ll speak again. We need to realise the problems quickly and change it round. We still can have a very good season but with results and performances like this we can’t.”

Newcastle’s win sees them reach the 50 point mark for the first time since finishing fifth in the Premier League in 2011-12. They’ve bettered their points total from each of the last nine top-flight seasons with 11 games to spare.