Jamie Carragher believes Dan Burn is well worth the assist he recorded for Newcastle United against Nottingham Forest.
Assists can sometimes be a strange metric. While they are certainly worth looking at, the raw numbers do not provide context.
Indeed, it doesn’t explain the nature of the assist in question. Looking at the assist data alone, an incisive through ball that splits a defence in two counts the same as simple pass made to a player who dribbles 30 yards, leaves defenders in their wake and slots home.
It’s not always indicative of the quality of the pass leading up to the goal.
However, Carragher was full of praise for the ball Burn played to Bruno Guimaraes during Newcastle’s win on Sunday.
Jamie Carragher hails Dan Burn’s Newcastle United assist for Newcastle United
The Sky Sports pundit was reflecting on Newcastle’s 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest in the Premier League.
It wasn’t exactly a vintage display from Eddie Howe’s side, but claiming the three points was all that mattered ahead of the international break.
Guimaraes took the game by the scruff of the neck in the second half. He robbed Morgan Gibbs-White of possession before eventually scoring a brilliant goal to settle some nerves inside St James’ Park.
After the Brazilian won the ball, he played in Burn. The defender then passed to the midfielder, who did the rest from range.
Carragher would later go into detail on what Burn did so well for the goal. Though it initially looked like a fairly simple pass, the Sky Sports pundit delivered some expert insight.
“Dan Burn does great,” he said.
“Now, Dan Burn is going to get the assist. Some people laugh at assists and say ‘A little simple pass to Guimaraes?’
“But no. I’ll tell you why Dan Burn deserves an assist. How many times I see a defender running forward and have a stupid shot over the bar and he gets a big laugh and a roar off the crowd.
“How many times do you hear supporters shouting a player’s name at the back when he comes forward with it? It’s almost like a joke, isn’t it?
“But he deserves the assist because he doesn’t do the stupid thing. He does the clever thing. He passes the ball to the guy who knows what he’s doing around the edge of the box.”
Emergency Dan Burn will be needed now and more assists could come
Burn has an impressive five assists in 158 games for Newcastle. Given most of his appearances have come in central defence, that’s by no means a terrible return.
Over the next weeks, Newcastle might need to keep playing him at left-back. That’s certainly a position that lends itself to recording more assists.
Lewis Hall has suffered an injury setback for Newcastle and, with Tino Livramento out too, Howe is not blessed with options in that role.
Burn, as a result, looks set to continue in that position for the time being.
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