‘I have been a fan so I understand the frustrations…’ Dan Burn

Dan Burn is back in the Newcastle United team.

After his World Cup adventure this summer, the newly installed captain having to be patient as an ankle injury put him on the NUFC sidelines.

Following brief cameos off the bench in the defeats to Coventry and Aston Villa, Dan Burn was back in the Newcastle United team for the most recent trip to London.

Dan Burn and Fabian Schar replacing Malick Thiaw and Sven Botman, as the pair helped United keep a rare clean sheet and win 2-0 at Selhurst Park.

However, that victory over Crystal Palace then quickly followed a return to doom and gloom with consecutive defeats to Everton in the Carabao Cup and Premier League.

Dan Burn reflecting: “Disappointed, frustrated…the last few games. Between the boxes we do okay but we are not ruthless enough going forward or defending our own box. When you are not winning games there is always a lack of confidence. The fans weren’t happy on Monday night] and they showed that at half-time and full-time. That doesn’t make it easy to build confidence when you are in that atmosphere. But I have been a fan so I understand the frustrations when they are not getting what they’re expecting. That wasn’t a Newcastle performance like we have expected in the last three or four years so I can completely understand the frustrations. It doesn’t make it easier for us as players. You can sense that nervousness in the ground…”

Dan Burn going on to talk about how the performance, the way the Newcastle United team played, didn’t match what had happened on the training ground and the expectations Matthias Jaissle had of the side: “From the first minute to the last minute that wasn’t a performance that he [Matthias Jaissle] expected from us, what we had prepared for, all the work that the staff put in to prepare us for games. A lot of the time, it probably isn’t tactical, it is more of a mentality thing from us. Not winning enough duels, not doing probably the ugly side of the game, which sometimes gives you that little bit of luck to get the game over. There’s probably a lack of confidence at both ends. We sort of feel that towards the end when we are chasing a game and we just need that little bit of decisiveness…but we are snatching at a few bits. I think it is the confidence thing and when it is going well and we have got that good momentum, it just seems to happen and we are not really thinking about it. We are thinking about things too much when going forward and probably not as fluid as we would like to be.”

Asked about adapting to the way Matthias Jaissle wants his Newcastle United team to play, Dan Burn: “I do think we are…but I still think you have to understand we have had a two-week pre-season [with Matthias Jaissle] and we are now three months in, still plenty of time for us to learn and get that. I will say what I have said before, we need stability and unity between us as players, us as a staff and us as a club, to push on and have that us against the world mentality.”