Manchester United defender Luke Shaw has claimed that Newcastle United "had higher motivation" than his side during Sunday's Premier League clash at St James' Park.

The Magpies recorded a 2-0 victory in the top-four battle, with Joe Willock opening the scoring before Callum Wilson made sure of the points for the home side in the final exchanges.

Man United have now only picked up one point from their last three league matches, which has seen them drop into fourth position in the table, just one point ahead of fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur.

Shaw has claimed that there was not a difference in quality between the two sides on Sunday, with Newcastle simply showing more "passion, hunger, desire, and attitude".

"I don't think [Newcastle] won the game on quality today. I think they won it on passion, hunger, desire, and attitude. They clearly had higher motivation than we did, and that can't be possible. It's not acceptable," Shaw told Sky Sports News.

"We know it was a massive game today and they wanted it more. At Manchester United, that cannot be possible.

"It's an extremely tough place to come and if we don't have that [passion and hunger] we're going to suffer, it was obvious on the pitch.

"We didn't create too much, and I think you can say it's been coming since before the international break, we dropped levels and it was clear to see today.

"The players had a chat in the changing room after with no staff around, because ultimately it's down to us players on the pitch. It was nowhere near good enough and we had to speak. We have to speak out in front of each other.

"We're a team and when we go out on that pitch, we all need to fight for each other, we need to be there for each other – I think sometimes this season it hasn't [looked] like that.

"It's important that we realise the problems quick and change them around because we can still have a very good season."

Man United now have back-to-back home Premier League matches against Brentford and Everton before hosting Sevilla for the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final on April 13.

Red Devils head coach Erik ten Hag also said that his side 'lacked passion and desire' in the contest with Eddie Howe's team. body check tags ::