Newcastle favourite could soon become undroppable as Eddie Howe's brave Man City call pays off


In the build up to Saturday's 1-1 draw with Manchester City few would have been totally surprised had defensively-savvy Lloyd Kelly been given the nod over inexperienced Lewis Hall at left-back. After all, the Premier League's most potent attack were arriving at St James' Park.

Instead, Eddie Howe somewhat rolled the dice on Hall and watched him put in, arguably, his best display in black and white to date. Yet few would have blamed the 20-year-old had he struggled in Saturday's early kick-off, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, facing up against one of the Premier League's best attackers in Bernardo Silva remains a tough ask for even the most experienced top flight operators. Savinho, who cost City £33m in the summer, was sent on late in the tie to try and succeed where Silva had failed down the visitors' right flank.

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Hall also hasn't had a clear run at making the left-back role his own after sharing the starting XI spot with Kelly in recent weeks. After starting, and struggling, on the opening weekend against Southampton, the youngster was replaced by Newcastle's summer free agent purchase for subsequent top flight clashes with Bournemouth and Tottenham.

However, with a run of games now under his belt, Hall looks to be growing into the position and looked surprisingly comfortable up against the heavyweight options at Pep Guardiola's disposal.

Silva was kept quiet all game and Hall even went toe to toe with Erling Haaland at stages of the 1-1 draw. The defender often carried the ball out of the back and picked a positive pass forward, while his ability to stand tall and defend going the other way was equally as impressive.

It was an assured display by a defender who clearly has the ability - and now needs to find the consistency to match. Do that, Hall becomes undroppable.

Newcastle fans would love nothing more than watching Hall nail down the left-back role for this season and years to come. He is considered a favourite among the fanbase and more performances similar to what we witnessed on Saturday will only strengthen that bond between the player and his supporters.

Discussing Hall's performance at full-time, Howe said: "I'm really pleased with Lewis today because it's a big challenge. He's up against not just the starting opponents but then the substitutions and fresh players coming on and he's fatigued late in the game.

"It was really interesting to see him adapted to that battle. I thought defensively he was very good, his positioning, his understanding because, again, tactically today we did something slightly different with our back line and he was pivotal to that.

"I thought he did really, really well but also his composure on the ball is very, very good. We can get him involved in the final third more so there's areas to still improve but he's got a very bright future and he continues to develop."