Newcastle United were absolutely destroyed by Bournemouth on Saturday in the Premier League.
Indeed, a club record-equalling run of nine consecutive victories was brought to an end in emphatic fashion as the Cherries ran out 4-1 winners at St James’ Park.
But for hitting the post, a brilliant scrambling save from Martin Dubravka and a VAR check, the away side could have inflicted more damage on Newcastle.
While the winning run had to end at some point, having seen it crumble in this kind of fashion was bitterly disappointing.
Eddie Howe’s side were second best in pretty much every area. Even the otherwise brilliant Lewis Hall had a difficult game for Newcastle.
Further forward, both Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon struggled against Bournemouth.
Quite what caused such an alarming dip in performance is up for debate. Howe blamed tiredness and fatigue, which cannot be ruled altogether.
Defender Dan Burn, however, took a different view.
Dan Burn shuts down Newcastle United excuses after Eddie Howe comments
Burn was critical of Newcastle’s performance against Bournemouth and rightly so.
Still, he was not of the belief that tiredness could be used as any kind of excuse. While it has been a busy period in English football, Howe was afforded the chance to make sweeping changes last weekend for the FA Cup win over Bromley, so it doesn’t quite fly.
Speaking to the club’s in-house media channel (which was posted on social media platform X), Burn said: “I think it’s an easy excuse that you’re tired. Obviously, we changed a lot of players for the Bromley game, so I don’t think you can really use that as an excuse.”
Bournemouth exploited a major weakness at Newcastle United
Newcastle simply could not deal with Bournemouth’s pressing.
In fact, Cherries forward Antoine Semenyo revealed that Bournemouth knew when to attack Newcastle, having spotted a weakness when Dubravka played out from the back and into one of the two central defenders.
Gordon was furious about Newcastle’s poor play out from the back, having have seen the problems first-hand.
Watching Newcastle keep doing the same thing without changing their approach was hugely disappointing to see.
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