Ten Hag: 'Newcastle wants more than Man Utd'

"I hate to say this, but Newcastle played better today, especially in determination, passion and desire. They wanted to win more today, and so took the three points," said Ten Hag. with BT Sport after the loss at St James' Park. Man Utd coach is also surprised because Man Utd is far behind the opponent in all aspects.

Luke Shaw also agreed with the teacher. The Man Utd left-back told Sky Sports: "Newcastle are very strong, but today they didn't win because of quality. I think they won because of passion, desire, enthusiasm and attitude. Obviously, Newcastle are highly motivated. I feel like I always say that every time Man Utd lose, but at this club, that's unacceptable."

The statistics reflect the statements of Ten Hag and Shaw. At St James' Park yesterday, Newcastle controlled the ball 45%, but finished 22 times with six shots on target, compared to 6 and 1 of Man Utd. Newcastle's expected goal index (xG) is 3.54 compared to 0.54 for the away team. In addition, "Shoot" also has 134 sprints compared to 93 of the opponent.

After a series of delicious opportunities missed, Newcastle opened the scoring from 65 minutes. Bruno Guimaraes crossed to the right and then crossed to the far post for Allan Saint-Maximin to head the pass for Joe Willock to put the ball into an empty goal. In the 88th minute, Newcastle extinguished Man Utd's hopes of winning points when substitute striker Callum Wilson beat Victor Lindelof in the air, headed diagonally to make David de Gea stuck.

Nearly two months ago, Man Utd beat Newcastle with a similar score in the League Cup final thanks to Casemiro and Marcus Rashford. Ten Hag denied that the "Red Devils" failed because of underestimating the opponent, and criticized the attack for not creating enough good opportunities to apply pressure. "We played the ball calmly, but on the offensive side we didn't create anything," he emphasized.

After that, the Dutch coach talked about how Man Utd lacked desire and had to quickly learn lessons. Ten Hag is also confident that Man Utd will immediately get up, as when defeating Betis in the eighth round of the Europa League and Fulham in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup right after the 0-7 defeat at Liverpool in the English Premier League.

Yesterday, Ten Hag played all his hands when launching Facundo Pellistri, Victor Lindelof to replace the main central defender duo Lisandro Martinez, Raphael Varane in the 83rd minute, when Man Utd was leading 0-1. The Dutch coach explained that he wanted to switch Man Utd to a three-back formation with Lindelof covering the gaps, to improve ball deployment. But this change did not work when Newcastle found the scorer just five minutes later.

After the defeat at St James' Park, Man Utd lost third place to Newcastle when they both had 50 points from 27 matches, but were poor in difference. Tottenham have 49 points, but kick more than one game.

On April 5, Newcastle will make up for it with West Ham, and Man Utd will return home to Brentford.