Newcastle United's desire has been questioned by pundit Rio Ferdinand after Man City thumped them 5-0 at the Etihad.
The former Leeds and Manchester United defender hit out at the players for their performance - even saying he felt they would have been happy to arrive back on Tyneside having lost 3-0.
With Allan Saint-Maximin, Jamaal Lascelles and Miguel Almiron out or not fully fit, Steve Bruce made six changes to his starting XI but it didn't take long for City's dominance to shine through.
United sat back for the majority of the game and City were allowed to roam and probe with little resistance.
Ferdinand told BT Sport presenter Jake Humphrey that the early stages of the game set the tone for the rest of it.
"Yeah, the first 20 minutes was a bad signal for this team, the way they started - very sloppy, giving away opportunities.
"They were almost sitting there saying 'go on: score - we'll give you the ball to score' and it wasn't nice to see.
"As a manager, he'll be disappointed but I got the feeling from the players that it was 'we've got players out [injured] and a lot of our influential players are out, we haven't got a chance and if we get out of here with a 3-0 defeat we'll be happy.'"
United were two goals down within 21 minutes with Gabriel Jesus and Riyad Mahrez scoring before a Federico Fernandez own goal, David Silva and Raheem Sterling made it five.
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