Dan Burn has admitted that an 'us against the world' mentality has given Newcastle United 'added motivation'.
Newcastle were booed off at Anfield last week by Liverpool supporters despite Jurgen Klopp's side winning the game with a controversial late goal from Fabio Carvalho. In a way, that reaction was a compliment after Newcastle unsettled and frustrated the Reds for large periods by running the clock down in the 2-1 defeat.
Off the field, too, Newcastle are being perceived a little differently following the club's takeover last year. Newcastle have found that domestic rivals have hiked prices for targets while clubs who were previously willing to send players on loan to Tyneside have not been quite so keen of late.
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Eddie Howe stated last week that the 'narrative' had changed. Managers can use that to their advantage - Sir Alex Ferguson thrived off a siege mentality at Manchester United - and Howe admitted there was a 'real feeling of us internally knowing we are against everybody else'. Alexander Isak, meanwhile, said that 'we love that people think like that' and Burn certainly felt similarly.
"I do feel it's us against the world sometimes with everything that's happened: the takeover, those sorts of things," the defender told NUFC TV. "It's just added motivation for us.
"Obviously, we got booed off at Liverpool but, like the gaffer says, you don't want to be clapped off sympathetically. It's good.
"We've shown this season that we're getting closer to teams above us. We maybe haven't picked up the points that we wanted but, as a whole, if we can consistently perform at that level, we will pick up more points."
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