Eddie Howe has hailed Dan Burn’s “magnificent” performances at left-back, believing he’s a “unique” player who does an outstanding job for the team.
Just a few weeks ago, certain Newcastle fans on social media were calling for the Geordie defender to be dropped after our poor start to the season, believing Lewis Hall should’ve been given a chance.
However, Burn has played a key role ever since that 3-1 defeat at Brighton, scoring twice, helping us to five clean sheets in our last seven games and defending superbly against the likes of Jarrod Bowen, Ousmane Dembele and Bryan Mbeumo over the past month.
Howe describes him as an “unusual” player, insisting there’s not many 6t 7′ full-backs who can adapt like he has, praising his “brilliant mindset to defending”, superb decision making and positional play, also believing he’s been “very good” technically; highlighted by his smart ball in behind for Alexander Isak on Sunday.
“He’s been magnificent.” Howe said. “He’s unusual. There are not many Dan Burn-type players playing football. He’s done so well to adapt to the position, but it’s a position he’s played before, so it’s not new to him.
“It’s just new to him for us, but technically he’s been very good. Defensively, he’s got a brilliant mindset to defending. He enjoys defending, he wants to defend.
“You can see in the last two games, the amount of good decisions he’s made against very good opponents, whether that’s a fast tricky winger or someone who is good positionally. He finds a way to react really well in-game to make adjustments to deal with his opponent.”
