Manchester United left-back Luke Shaw has claimed that after the team’s defeat by Newcastle, the players had an open discussion away from their manager Erik ten Hag. At St James’ Park, Manchester United came in second to Newcastle after losing 2-0, dropping the Red Devils out of the top four.
A Newcastle counter-attack, was finished by ex-Arsenal man Joe Willock from close range to open the scoring of the game. The victory was then secured for the Magpies by Callum Wilson, who jumped to meet a corner kick from Keiran Trippier and headed in off the post. At the final whistle, Shaw opened up on the atmosphere in the locker room, revealing that the players had been allowed alone to reflect honestly on their performances.
‘Nowhere near good enough’ – Shaw calls out Manchester United teammates
Speaking in his post match presser, Shaw ripped into his Manchester United teammates for lacking “passion” and “attitude”. United put on a less than impressive performance as they laboured the entire 90 minutes to control their hosts at Saint James’ Park. Erik ten Hag’s team will now have to fight to finish in the Champions League spots at the end of the season.
Shaw was blunt in his attempt to critique his team’s lacklustre performance in the North East. In his post-game press conference, a dejected Shaw made an appearance to try and make sense of his team’s performance, admitting he had just spoken to his players. The England veteran told Sky Sports:
“The players had a chat in the changing room after with no staff around because ultimately it’s down to us as players on the pitch. Like I said, it was nowhere near good enough and we had to speak out in front of each other and own up to it. Not good enough. I feel like every time I speak after games, bad results, I’m always honest.
“I think it’s important, we’re a team and when we go out on that pitch we all need to fight for each other and I think sometimes this season it’s maybe not shown like that. We’ve had a good chat in the changing room after, I’m sure we’ll go over it again and all speak again because I think it’s important.
“We need to realise them problems and realise them quick, change them around because we can still have a very good season but with results like this and performances like this then we can’t.
“Us as a team, we have to be honest, I do feel Newcastle are a very good side but I don’t think they won the game on quality today, they won it on passion and hunger, desire, attitude and they clearly had that higher motivation than we had. That can’t be possible. I feel like we say the same things every time we lose, like I say it’s not acceptable and we know that. It was a massive game today and they wanted it more. At Man Utd that cannot be possible.”
Newcastle overtook Manchester United and moved up to third place in the Premier League as a result of their emphatic win. If Tottenham defeats Everton on Monday night, United will drop down from the Champions League positions. Spurs will, however, will have played two more games than Ten Hag’s team. Shaw, meanwhile, is said to have reached a new contract at Old Trafford.