'We're still inconsistent': Dan Burn gives brutal assessment of Newcastle United's current form after being dumped out of FA Cup

You don't need to be a football expert to see that Newcastle United are struggling at the moment. You may need to be one to pinpoint exactly why they are, though.

Newcastle went on a brilliant run of wins in December and January, but since then, even when the Magpies have picked up wins, it hasn't been convincing.

Granted, Newcastle have had a tough run of games recently, coming up against Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and Brighton, and to be fair to the lads, they beat two of those sides with a win over Birmingham in the middle of it all too.

So Newcastle are, at times, getting the job done, but as we said, it has been far from convincing. Especially in the defeats to Man City, Liverpool and Brighton. We've been far too stand-offish, showing our opponents too much respect. Whether that's a confidence thing or a tactic, we're not sure.

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Dan Burn admits that Newcastle aren't firing on all cylinders

Dan Burn has admitted that he and his teammates aren't hitting the levels they're capable of to The Northern Echo.

“I think we’re still inconsistent at the moment. We’re still yet to put together a real, full performance at the levels we’re capable of. That’s obviously bad, but you can look at it as more of a positive that we’re still in a good position in the league, even though I don’t really think we’ve hit the levels that we know that we can.

“We’re still in a good position going into the business end of the season. As inconsistent as we’ve been this season, we’re still in a good position for what we want to achieve.

“We’re in the European places, and although the league is so tight, we just need to put another run together like the one we had over Christmas to cement that position in the league. Then we’ve obviously got the final just around the corner too, which is a massive opportunity. As inconsistent as we have been, we know that if we can just get that together and click, we can be a really good team.”

We need to focus on the positives, as hard as that is right now

After a soul-crushing defeat, it is very easy to focus on the negative, but as Burn says, we're still in a good position in the league - albeit not as good as it has been, and we're still just 90 minutes away from potentially lifting a trophy.

We're still backing the lads to grab a Champions League place this season. I'm not going to lie and say I have any confidence going into the Carabao Cup final, but stranger things have happened. I didn't give Manchester United a chance in hell against Manchester City in the FA Cup final last season and look how that turned out - they robbed us of a European place.

We've still got some tricky fixtures to come in the Premier League, but we have some very winnable games, too. It's still in our hands to snatch fourth or fifth spot and take a place in the Champions League next season.