Dan Burn has revealed that he thought Anthony Gordon looked incredible during Newcastle United’s pre-season after returning from international duty in the summer.
Gordon played a crucial role in England’s Under-21 Euros victory in the summer where he looked sharper than ever before heading to Newcastle’s pre-season camp just days later.
Burn joined the Monday Night Club where he spoke about how amazed he was at Gordon’s transformation over the summer.
Gordon returned to Newcastle a changed man
After signing from Everton for £45m, Gordon struggled to fit in at Newcastle where he often looked tired in games and there was a worry that the club had wasted a large portion of their budget on the winger.
But as Burn has now revealed, it’s very difficult to come into an Eddie Howe team and immediately hit the ground running – Gordon had to first get up to speed with how the Newcastle boss wants him to play.
Howe’s intense style of play isn’t easy to deal with from an opposition’s point of view and it’s the reason why Newcastle have been so successful as of late.
On the other hand, it’s equally as difficult for new players to try and execute such a high press when you’ve spent so long at an underperforming team, but Gordon is starting to nail it.
On the Monday Night Club, Burn said: “I think it’s hard to come into this team and play straight away, you need to know your role completely. It did take a little bit of time, I think that Euros did wonders for him.
“In pre-season he was on fire, he looked so fit when he came back and now he’s got direction in everything that he does. I think I read something that said he has the most tackles for our team which I was surprised at.
“Every time you’re out there in a game you’re just wanting to feed him the ball because you know something can happen, he’s so quick, so direct. Even off the ball, the stuff that the crowd love that he feeds off, chasing balls back and winning tackles.”
Gordon now a fan favourite
After a difficult start, Gordon is now firmly a fan favourite amongst the Newcastle supporters and someone who is absolutely integral to the team.
As Burn discussed, Gordon thrives off of chasing players down and making tackles to help his teammates out which will always be adored by the Newcastle fans no matter who you are.
The 22-year-old has quite clearly gone away over the summer and tried to focus on how to be a better player for his manager and his team, coming back a transformed player.
The work rate and defensive efforts from the attacker has been crucial in so many close games in the Premier League and Champions League this season, Eddie Howe will just be hoping that it can last.
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