Left-back Luke Shaw described Manchester United's 2-0 defeat to Newcastle United at St James' Park on Sunday afternoon as "unacceptable", admitting that that the home side showed far more hunger for all three points.
United were condemned to their second Premier League defeat in their last three matches, thanks to second half goals from Joe Willock and substitute Callum Wilson. Newcastle were the better side throughout the contest and richly deserved all three points.
The Reds were second best from the very first whistle and failed to lay so much as a glove on the Magpies, who were inspired by a raucous home atmosphere. The result saw Newcastle leapfrog United in the table, moving up to third on goal difference.
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And for Shaw, who is close to putting pen to paper on a new deal at Old Trafford, it was a result that he could have no complaints about.
"It was not good enough," Shaw admitted, speaking to Sky Sports. "I feel like every time I speak after bad results that I am always honest and I think us, as a team, we have to be honest.
"I do think that Newcastle are a very good side, but I don't think they won the game on quality today; I think they won it on passion, hunger, desire, attitude and they clearly had a higher motivation than we did. That cannot be possible.
"Like I said, it is not acceptable. It was a massive game today and they wanted it more. At Man United that cannot be possible."
United have now failed to score in each of their last three league matches - their worst run since February 2020 - and have picked up just seven points from the last 15 on offer. Alarmingly, Shaw sensed a performance of such nature was around the corner prior to the international break.
He added: "I think it is unacceptable and we can all admit that. It is not what we want to set out to be.
"In big games like this you need that motivation, passion, hunger and attitude because it is an extremely tough place to come to. If we don't give that we are going to suffer and it was obvious on the pitch.
"We didn't create too much, to be honest, and I think maybe you can say it had been coming before the international beak. We had dropped levels and it was clear to see today that the levels were not there.
"We have three days to pick it back up because Brentford is going to be a very tough game."
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