Manchester United suffered a 1-0 defeat at St James’ Park by a dominant Newcastle United side courtesy of Anthony Gordon’s 55th-minute strike on Saturday and Harry Maguire did shy to admit that the home side were better.
Newcastle didn’t only dominate possession (59%) but also had a whopping 22 shots towards Andre Onana’s goal, keeping him consistently engaged and the deadlock finally broke in the 55th minute with Gordon finding the back of the net.
Maguire admitted that Newcastle were the superior side as Erik ten Hag’s men failed to continue their three-match winning streak in the Premier League.
"It's been a tough week with three away days in six days," said Maguire.
"To be fair, in the first half, we looked like we'd played our third away day in six days. The tempo wasn't there, the intensity wasn't there. They were a lot better than us. We grew into the game, but we didn't have enough in the end.
"We put pressure on. We could have had a goal, we had one disallowed. We didn't create enough in the game, our threat wasn't big enough.”
Man United, who finally managed to enter the PL top-six after winning three successive matches in the league, are now at the seventh position with 24 points and would fall to eight if Brighton beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
It is worth mentioning that Man United are having a woeful season. They are on the verge of being eliminated from the UEFA Champions League (UCL) after a 3-3 draw against Galatasaray on November 29.
The Red Devils scored 12 goals in Group A, which is the most, but they are still at the bottom of the group and their chances of playing the Round of 16 are on thin ice.
Ten Hag’s men have four points in five matches, they don’t just need to beat in-form Bayern Munich in their last UCL match, but also pray for a draw between Galatasaray and Copenhagen because a win for either team would send them to the Europa League, should they beat Thomas Tuchel’s men.