Dan Burn stands with Eddie Howe - “We just want to keep backing him”

Eddie Howe has navigated a tough period of pressure as Newcastle United boss lately, with the team performing well below what's expected.

During his difficult spell, Eddie Howe mentioned once how the players hadn't executed the game plan they were told, which is as close as the manager has ever come to blaming his players for a defeat.

Thankfully, everyone seems to be back on the same page, or at least in the same book, as they certainly weren't before.

Newcastle returned to winning ways on Saturday, beating Brighton 3-1, and Dan Burn, after registering a goal against his old club, came out in defence of his manager.

Dan Burn says the players are to blame for poor form

Burn hailed Howe as the 'best manager in the history of Newcastle United' in an interview with Newcastle World, while also saying that the players believe in what he's doing.

“From our point of view, nothing's changed with us. I've said it before, we believe in what the gaffer is doing. I think a lot of the responsibility falls on us as players rather than the manager.

“I've always said this: when he puts a plan together, it's normally if we execute that plan, we get a result. So a lot of that falls on our shoulders. We feel like we take a lot of responsibility for that.

“So, yeah, we just want to keep backing him. As I said, I think the managerial, whatever happens in years to come, he will probably go down as the best manager in the history of Newcastle. We just want to get the results for him at the moment.

“I don't read much into it (the talk), if I'm honest. It's probably just people coming up to me and asking what's been going on and all that sort of stuff. As a Newcastle fan, I feel as if we're either really far ahead or really low (as a fan base). There’s not very (much) middle ground, and I'm part of that as well.

“I know that as being a fan and what I was like when I was in the stands, so I can understand the frustration. As I said, I think we've been on such an upward trajectory the last few years that when it's tailed off a little bit, I can understand people being frustrated. But listen, we fully support everything that the club's doing, the owners and the manager. We just want to finish the season strong.”

We are Newcastle-not-very-United at the moment

A lot of the time, the manager gets unfair stick from fans for the tactics, but nobody ever questions whether the players are following the plan, so it's good to see the players accepting responsibility. All that being said, it's not all on the players; we're sure that there have been plenty of games in which the players have executed Howe's plan and not got a result.

We are just looking forward to the day when we can stop focusing on all of this negativity and the team is back to winning games regularly and playing well, and we can all be a united fanbase again.

It can happen, right?