The Red Devils were a shadow of themselves at the St James' Park and saw their lethargic performance punished by the Magpies. Matt Ritchie's 65th-minute strike secured Rafa Benitez's side's first victory since October 2017. Many frantic fans of Manchester United have since taken their frustrations to Twitter, with some attributing the disappointing result to Jose Mourinho’s tactics.
The Portuguese manager set out his team in his contemporary 4-2-3-1 formation which featured key players such as Romelu Lukaku, Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial and new-boy, Alexis Sanchez. The side, however, lacked the services of Marcus Rashford and Ander Herrera who were absented from the traveling squad.
The defeat means Jose Mourinho is still yet to record a single win at the St James’ Park, taking his winless run to seven. His team, however, still sits in second place with 56 points - 16 points adrift table-toppers Manchester City.
Here are a few tweets by some Manchester United fans after their side’s unsatisfactory performance:
A point dropped. Never looked like in control. Jose needs to reassess what's his best team. It's not working. #mufc
— Sameer Volvoicar (@carlos_anubis) February 11, 2018
Thier goal keeper did what DDG does most of the time. He was simply superb. but united no so much. Very disappointed #mufc #NEWMUN
— JD (@jayu_192) February 11, 2018
Incredibly sensible performance that from the lads. League has gone, save the energy for Europe. On a side note, this better be Smalling's last season at united. Woefully bad. #mufc
— Johnny Herstritt (@jibis13) February 11, 2018
Boring. Predictable. Underperforming. #mufc
— St.Eve (@iamSJP) February 11, 2018
Another pathetic display from #MUFC . You guys should be ashamed of yourselves really. Horrible just horrible. Was Pogba even there? Sigh.
— Lori aka ... ? (@elle_belle1978) February 11, 2018
Newcastle United had not won a match at home for 4 months until #MUFC came to town pic.twitter.com/h2RTPRO0iY
— Kat Ferguson (@AllRedDevils) February 11, 2018
#mufc pic.twitter.com/q5s01UBNpD
— Lauren (@lauren_hughes_) February 11, 2018
This team, pathetic. I have no idea what needs fixed but something does #mufc
— Chris Bentley (@chrisbentley13) February 11, 2018
Absolutely abysmal from United today. The performance was awful & there can be no arguments about the result! United getting dragged into a top four race which they should’ve been well ahead of #MUFC
— Everything Man Utd (@everything_utd) February 11, 2018