Dan Burn reflects on defeat to Liverpool ahead of Manchester City’s clash

Dan Burn will have a new partner in the middle of Newcastle’s defense this weekend at the Etihad. With Fabien Schär injured last Saturday after James Milner left a mark on him, it will most probably be Jamaal Lascelles who takes on the second center-back position come Sunday’s kickoff.

Lascelles loses no time in making it very clear that the Toon is in for a true fight this weekend against City, as reported by The Chronicle and echoed here earlier today. Also speaking to The Chronicle, Burn joined captain Jamaal Lascelles in sharing his thoughts about both the defeat to Liverpool last Saturday and the upcoming match against the Men of Pep.

On Liverpool’s 0-1 loss at St James’ Park, Burn had encouraging words to say.

“There is no shame in getting beat of Liverpool.”

“[Liverpool] and City are probably the best two teams in the world at the moment [and] that’s where we want to be so it was a bit of a measure to see how far away we are.

“Just their quality [...], whoever plays out of the five world class players they’ve got can cause teams problems.”

“[Liverpool] probably weren’t at their best [on Saturday] but they keep picking up points. We could have given them more of a problem than we did but they’re one of the best teams.”

“There is no shame in getting beat off Liverpool.”

Burn also acknowledge the recent change in attitude coming from the Geordie Army at St James’ Park with the team turning their putrid start to the season upside down, saying “[St James’ Park] is a nice place to play at the minute with the atmosphere, all the flags, and everything.”

Burn came to Tyneside last January with the Magpies taking advantage of the winter transfer window to bring defensive reinforcements. That unit, in turn, has become the strongest line of Newcastle through the second half of the season. Since he debuted in black and white back on Feb. 13, the Magpies have conceded more than one goal just once (0-5 against Tottenham) while Burn has started—and never left the field—all 13 games since then.

The defender even assisted Bruno Guimaraes’ winner against Southampton on Mar. 10. Not his calling card, but there’s that bonus in case you needed it—which, being honest, the Magpies surely welcomed back then.

Turns out Burn will be celebrating his 30th birthday next Monday, so here’s hoping he caps the weekend with a victory over City and has a solid motive to go on a wild party in the Manchester night leading up to Monday’s morning.