Luke Shaw delivered a damning assessment of Man Utd’s 2-0 defeat against Newcastle on Sunday.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The Red Devils were comfortably beaten by the Magpies – who leapfrogged their opponents in the Premier League in the process.
England left-back Shaw admitted that his side’s performance was “unacceptable” but bizarrely said Newcastle “won on desire, passion, hunger, attitude” and not on “quality”.
While he is right in half of that assessment, it is a poor take from Shaw if he genuinely believes Man Utd weren’t also beaten due to the quality of their hosts.
“Not good enough,” Shaw 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.
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“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.”
On reports he has agreed to sign a new long-term contract, Shaw said: “I’m close [to a new contract]. Nothing has been signed yet. We’ve agreed certain things. We’ll take it from there.”
Speaking to BBC Match of the Day, the 27-year-old conceded that Arsenal and Manchester City have been the best two sides in the Premier League this season and has emphasised the importance of qualifying for the Champions League.
“Not what we wanted,” he added. “Not what we were expecting.
“When you come here to a tough stadium and a very good side and you don’t come with the right attitude and hunger it will be a tough day. That showed today. We deserved to lose.
“Especially after the international break, the whole team had a bit of rest. Our levels had dropped, that was clear to see.
“Coming in today we felt good and ready for the game. The whistle goes and it’s the complete opposite to what we’ve been doing in training.
“Unacceptable. “With the players we have we can always create a chance. We were calm, composed and we knew if we got one chance we could score. We didn’t create too many. That’s not us. I can’t really remember a big chance.
“We have to be honest, Arsenal and City have been the best teams, winning every game. They deserve to be the top two.
“The most important thing for us is we’re still in two competitions we feel we can win.
“We have to get in the Champions League. We are the biggest club in world, we have to be in the Champions League. We have to refocus and get back to winning ways.”
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