Dan Burn has explained what went so wrong for Newcastle United in their crushing 4-1 defeat to Bournemouth on Saturday, listing three mistakes the side made.
Newcastle Untied went into their Premier League fixture with an injury-stricken Bournemouth the confident favourites but were second best from the first minute to the last.
The Cherries caught Eddie Howe’s side flat footed in the opening seconds and took a deserved early lead when Justin Kluivert scored his first goal of the afternoon after six minutes.
Newcastle did fight back in a hotly contested opening 45 and levelled through Bruno Guimaraes’ header but they still went in behind after the captain was caught in possession to set Kluivert up for a second.
The Magpies never looked liked scoring in the second half as a tireless Bournemouth didn’t give them a chance to build any momentum before they rubbed salt in the wounds with two goals in added time.
Kluivert completed his hat-trick with a stunner before Milos Kerkez rounded off the scoring after being allowed to encroach on goal unimpeded.
Despite conceding four, Martin Dubravka was the only player to earn a decent rating. It was a difficult day for Dan Burn at centre-back and he has now listed the errors his side made.
Dan Burn explains what went wrong for Newcastle vs Bournemouth
As Antoine Semenyo explained, Bournemouth spotted Newcastle’s weaknesses and exploited them with pleasure.
They repeatedly caught Newcastle in possession with intense pressing and forced them into mistakes. Burn has explained the team walked into their opponents’ traps, lost the ball too often and didn’t start well enough.
Speaking to TNT Sports, Burn said: “We didn’t start very well. They set traps and we played into them quite a few times. It was hard to recover. Bournemouth were just the better team today, technically and physically, and deserved to win.
“They are very, very good on the counter. They’ve got some very good players and are very dangerous. They ask questions that a lot of other teams don’t ask. They go quite long and direct and you don’t come up against that as much in this league.
“We played in areas that we usually don’t. We lost the ball quite a lot in the middle of the pitch. It is disappointing. We’ve been on a great run so we just need to dust ourselves down and go again.
“Those are the standards we set for ourselves. The work we’ve done throughout the season has been exactly the same.”
A well-timed reality check for Newcastle?
There would have been no shame in losing to a talented side like Bournemouth, even in spite of the listless performance, had the score stayed low but perhaps the stinging score line will be of benefit.
Losing 4-1 at home is never good but it can perhaps serve as a timely reality check after such a great run of form.
Newcastle have been sensational in recent weeks but they are still a cut below being able to challenge for the Premier League. Improvements still need to be made.
The bench should be of particular concern given none of Howe’s substitutes were able to change the course of the game. The Toon lack quality outside of the first choice XI.
Such a defeat shows that new signings would be useful and it’s handy that it came when those are still a possibility.
PSR restrictions mean Newcastle are unlikely to do much business in January but surely some manoeuvring can be done to bring in some fresh blood? Even if on loan.
Newcastle particular need additional talent in attacking areas, especially after Jacob Murphy hobbled off with an injury.
Maybe the loss will be a positive to spur the club into action while the window is still open.
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