Dan Burn has had a difficult season. Early in the season, he struggled with his play, which drew criticism. Despite this, the towering defender handled it well enough to impress head coach Eddie Howe without coming off as surprising.
Burn failed to regain the form that had made him a key member of Howe’s Magpies after missing a month of action at the close of the previous season due to a back ailment.
However, Burn is as mentally tough as any player Howe has ever worked with, therefore instead of receiving criticism as was the case early in the season, Newcastle’s manager feels Burn should be praised.
And how important Burn has been these past few days or so.
Since joining from Brighton two years ago, Burn has spent the majority of his football career playing at left-back. However, after both Sven Botman and Jamaal Lascelles sustained serious knee injuries, Burn moved smoothly and impressively into the center of the defense, where he will start today against his old team, Fulham.
“It’s difficult for me to comment on his behalf, but I think it’s difficult for any player if they’re getting criticism,” says Howe, looking back on Burn’s testing spell earlier this year.
“I’m sure the players will know the processes they need to do to stay away from it for their own feeling and their own psychology.
“Sometimes when you get your processes right, you still hear things, you still have to absorb it, and then you need the mental strength to cope with that and come back and deliver good performances.
“Dan is as mentally strong a player as I’ve seen, he’s very robust, he’s experienced, he’s a leader and I’m really, really pleased because for me, we should be celebrating players like Dan, we should be saying how good he is and how well he’s done for this football club.
“I genuinely believe that with every fibre that I have, that he’s been incredible.
“You can’t guarantee your players will play well every week, but what you can ask is that they give you their all and they commit to everything you ask them to do and they give their best for the football club, and Dan’s certainly in that bracket.”
Howe wants to protect his players from “outside criticism” as best as he can – particularly on social media.
He said: “It depends where the critique is coming from. Now, the trouble with social media and that kind of feedback is it’s faceless.
“You have no idea where the opinion is coming from, if the opinion is valid and that’s why I’d say to the players they’re better off keeping their circle of friends very, very small and listen to the people that they really trust and believe in and that way, I think you’ll get honest feedback and you get the type of feedback that you need.
“If you open yourself up to to many opinions, with all due respect, a lot of people would not have the intellect to give a proper assessment.”
