Newcastle United’s Dan Burn has been a makeshift left-back again for the Magpies with Lewis Hall and Tino Livramento being out of action.placeholder image
Newcastle United’s Dan Burn has been a makeshift left-back again for the Magpies with Lewis Hall and Tino Livramento being out of action. | Getty Images
Newcastle United take on Athletic Club at St James’ Park in the Champions League.
Last season the big Geordie formed an outstanding partnership with fellow black and white veteran Fabian Schar, with goals and chances hard to come by for opposition forwards. The duo’s relationship continued to blossom this season, until injury saw it unceremoniously ripped apart, with Burn shifted to the left and Schar dropping out on Champions League week one due to concussion.
Since that moment, a new partnership has been forged at the heart of the United backline, with Sven Botman and Malick Thaiw looking every bit a top class fit, albeit that Sunday blip v West Ham didn’t do anyone any favours. Criticism was rightly thrown the way of every player, even the manager Eddie Howe.
Dan Burn on Newcastle United selection and competition for places
Speaking before the Magpies’ Champions League clash with Athletic Club, where Burn is again expected to start at left back, the England man defended his performances at left back, but admitted he would like to go back central in the not too distant future, even if competition for places is high.
“I still think I've been playing pretty well, to be honest,” said Burn of his recent performances. “Take the West Ham game aside, I feel I've put in good performances as a left-back, don't get me wrong, there's very different styles in full-backs, if you compare me to Trips, Tino or Hally, we're not the same players, I'm not going to produce the same things that they do, but obviously the manager thinks that I can do what he wants me to do in that position, so I still feel as though I've been playing pretty well. I've said it before, I want to play centre-half, that's my best position, I was player of the year last year playing in that position, but I just want to play football, and if the manager thinks that I can help the team playing there, obviously with injuries in that position as well, so I'm more than happy to do it.”
Dan Burn on Tino Livramento and Lewis Hall at NUFC
“I think it's good now that we've got, especially those two lads coming back, because they are very big players for us, and we've got good quality in every position now, so I think the manager's spoke about the season, there'll probably be a lot more rotation this year. I think that's something that we've probably not leaned on as much in the past, we've always been quite a settled team, but now we have good quality in every single position, so we should be able to take players in and out without the standards of our performance being there.”
Dan Burn on ‘making things difficult’ for Eddie Howe when it comes to NUFC selection
“Yeah, always, I feel like I've done that my whole career, I feel like wherever I’ve been there's been centre-halves brought in, or players in my position, that have been brought in to take it, and I'm still here, I feel like I've built up a fair bit of amount of credit with my performances for Newcastle since I've been here, so I'm confident that I'll continue to do that.”
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