Dan Burn, signed from Brighton in January, has proven himself to be an extremely valuable member of the Newcastle team.
It looked like Big Dan Burn would be relegated to the bench after the arrival of Sven Botman in the summer, the man Newcastle pursued before making an approach for Burn, however, on the opening game of the season we saw Botman on the bench and Burn in the starting eleven.
In fact, Howe had planned to introduce Botman even more slowly into the first team than he did, but an injury to Matt Targett forced his hand and Botman was given a start at centre-back and BDB was moved to left-back, a position he’d covered several times for Brighton.
Burn proved himself more than capable at left-back. Less likely to get forward than Targett, but just as, if not more defensively capable. Burn did so well, that on several occasions he has kept Targett out of the team.
Is Burn Good Enough For An England Call?
Yes
No
Then on Saturday, with Trippier and Wilson subbed off and Lascelles on the bench with Shelvey injured, the big man from Ashington realised a boyhood dream of captaining the club he followed as a youth. Saying in his post-match interview that he is never taking the armband off.
It seems that Howe seems like he has a player in Burn that he can rely on and feels can play a vital role in any team’s success. He opted for Burn over Botman against Bournemouth as he felt that Burn’s experience was more needed to control the game.
Despite Burn’s own anxiety that he was brought in as a short-term fix in January, it’s now clear to everyone how important Howe feels Burn is, and I don’t think you’d find many Newcastle fans who’d disagree. Burn hasn’t really put a foot wrong since he joined the Magpies, and despite him playing for his boyhood club, he never looks overawed with the occasion, even the penalty he conceded yesterday against Brentford was a soft one. Technically a penalty within the rules of the game, but there was very little, if anything, he could have done about it.
At just £13m Burn feels like a bargain.
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