Gary Neville has claimed that Manchester United's midfield should not have been "overrun and outplayed" by Newcastle United's during the 2-0 win at St James' Park on Sunday.
Eddie Howe's side dominated the match as they put on a display worth of Champions League football next season. Joe Willock and Callum Wilson's goals have moved Newcastle up into third place with just 11 games left to play this term.
Neville joined Jamie Carragher on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football to pick the bones out of the game and the former Man United man could not understand how his old side were second best to the Magpies in the middle of the park all afternoon.
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"The way Erik ten Hag plays, he’s got a three in midfield," he said. "It’s man-for-man, so it’s actually a very easy comparison and a simple way of measuring who wanted it more and who ran more.
"When you just look at these stats [touches, possession won, duels won, shots and touches in the opposition box] of [Sean] Longstaff, [Bruno] Guimaraes and [Joe] Willock versus [Bruno] Fernandes, [Scott] McTominay and [Marcel] Sabitzer, you look at that [Newcastle] midfield and Guimaraes is a great player but Longstaff and Willock are just good, solid lads. It shouldn’t be this way - should they have more passes than that Manchester United midfield? They probably shouldn’t.
"They won possession more than that Manchester United midfield by a lot [23 to 16]. They won a lot more duels [22 to 15] than that Manchester United midfield and they had nine shots on goal, that’s the most surprising thing. If you think about that midfield they’ve had nine shots on Manchester United’s goal versus Manchester United’s midfield having one, and that - 13 touches [in the opposition’s box].
"They’ve run forward more, they’ve won more duels, they’ve won more possession and they’ve had more touches - that was pretty representative of what Erik ten Hag and Luke Shaw were referring to when they were talking about the idea of actually Newcastle wanted it more.
"That three in midfield of Manchester United shouldn't have been overrun and outplayed like they were by that three from Newcastle."
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