Dan Burn has urged Newcastle United fans to keep the faith with Matthias Jaissle as the manager looks to rebuild the Magpies with a fresh new look. Burn will lead out Newcastle at St James' Park on Monday night for a revenge match against Everton, just days after being dumped out of the Carabao Cup.
Fans question selection policy
With Jaissle under fire, all eyes will be on his selection after a decision to go strong against the Toffees backfired. Fans have been questioning Jaissle's selection policy, with summer signings such as Aladji Bamba, a £35.5m addition from Monaco, Sean Steur, who cost £23m from Ajax, and Bazoumana Toure, another big buy at £43m from Hoffenheim, not starting games.
Instead, Jaissle has been leaning on a clutch of players he inherited, including Jacob Murphy, Fabian Schar, Joe Willock and Joelinton, who were signed by Rafa Benitez and Steve Bruce more than half a decade ago. Jaissle handed Burn, an Eddie Howe signing from 2022, the captain's armband, and the club legend, who scored in the Carabao Cup final to end the club's trophy drought in 2025 against Liverpool, hopes fans can understand the manager's thinking.
Adaptation takes time
Burn said: "When you move to a new country, a new league, away from your family, it takes time to adapt. We're playing at a Premier League level where maybe you don't have that time but that's the reality. It's 18, 19, 20-year-old kids, you can't expect them just to jump in and go. It's about us supporting them."
"As the weeks go by, we're getting more and more from them. The manager has said himself a lot of the lads aren't finished articles but you see glimpses of them and it's just about being able to do that on a consistent level. That takes time but I have no doubt we've signed some very good players and they will be great players for Newcastle."
Looking to put things right
Almost 8,000 Newcastle fans voted with their feet against Everton in the cup and left early with their side down and out in the competition they won two seasons ago. Despite that exit, Newcastle could climb into a European place if they beat the Toffees in the Premier League on Monday night.
Burn said: "I don't think it's all doom and gloom. I can understand frustrations, especially when 8,000 Geordies are there. I understand it, but I do think there are positives to take from what we've done. I'm looking forward to Monday and putting those wrongs right."
Burn will be bidding to start his third game in a row after coming back into the team for last weekend's 2-0 win at Crystal Palace. Having recovered from an ankle injury, picked up just days after he'd got back from holiday after his England heroics, Burn is enjoying being back in the action.
After returning to play for a new manager, after Eddie Howe was replaced by Jaissle, Burn said: "I am not necessarily playing catch up. I don't think it's going any different to how I expected it. I knew there'd been a lot of change, so I knew it was going to take a while for the manager to get his philosophy across and for us to take it on. As players, we've had a lot of change, the young lads coming through."
"So it's going how I expected it would, but I still think it's going positively. We're seventh in the league, obviously it's disappointing to be out of the cup but there are a lot of positives." His manager echoed Burn's sentiments after supporters did not hold back with fierce criticism online.
Jaissle said: "We want to give them something - back. We had 8,000 travelling to Everton and we didn't get a great result. So we are frustrated and that is normal. We have to readjust and turn this around for Monday."
