What Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag said about referee's performance vs Newcastle

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag refused to comment on referee Craig Pawson's performance in their goalless draw with Newcastle.

Pawson turned down penalty appeals from both sides and denied United a goal when Cristiano Ronaldo intercepted the ball when it was stationary, believing it to be in play.

Newcastle defender Fabian Schar rolled the ball to goalkeeper Nick Pope, the apparent kicker. Ronaldo intervened but to no avail and Newcastle's free-kick was eventually taken.

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Pawson rejected appeals for a penalty from Callum Wilson in the first-half and Jadon Sancho in the second. Raphael Varane clumsily challenged Wilson and Sancho went down under contact from Sean Longstaff.

Ten Hag approached Pawson at full-time but refused to disclose what he said to him. "I don't have a comment, everyone has seen it.

"As I said, I shared that with [the officials]. Everyone has seen what happened today on the pitch, so I don't have a comment.

"As I said, I share [my views] with them. You can try, eh? Everyone has seen the game. You have to judge the performance from the teams and from the refs, not me."

When pressed on the penalty calls, Ten Hag reiterated: "I don't have a comment on the ref's performance."

Christian Eriksen did not start for United in the Premier League for the first time due to illness and his teammates struggled without the Dane.

Ten Hag started Casemiro and Fred together for the second game running but United already appear dependent on the playmaking prowess of the 30-year-old Eriksen.

"We have a squad and you see in the last weeks, we have more than 11 players who can contribute and also this team played really well," Ten Hag said.

"I think we had 15 attempts,