Eddie Howe says Newcastle United have a young player with ‘outstanding’ technical ability

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Newcastle United have had little to cheer about at times this season.

The Magpies sit in 12th in the Premier League table winning just three of their last 10 games. Newcastle also have the lowest number of different goalscorers in the league so far this season with only seven players finding the net.

Things took a positive turn on Saturday following Newcastle’s win against Leicester at St James’ Park which saw Jacob Murphy, Bruno Guimaraes and Alexander Isak get on the scoresheet.

While the attacking woes persist, they are enjoying much better times in defence. Newcastle have conceded 21 goals this season which puts them amongst the best in the Premier League with only the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal bettering them.

It’s a big turnaround from their leaky defensive troubles last season which saw them concede 62 goals.

There is one player in particular who can take a big chunk of the credit for the turnaround and Eddie Howe knows that.

Eddie Howe praises Newcastle United’s Lewis Hall for his performances this season

Lewis Hall has arguably been Newcastle’s best player of the season so far. Newcastle signed Hall from Chelsea in the summer following a successful loan period and has become the Magpies reliable starting left-back while Dan Burn fills the void left by Sven Botman’s injury.

Newcastle face Brentford in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday, Howe took his pre-match press conference which was aired on Newcastle’s website where he was asked about Hall.

He said: “Lewis has been very consistent. He has been a shining light for us, for someone so young that is not easy to do.

“I think his technical ability has been outstanding, defensively he has been pretty good, how he has handled himself and his maturity on and off the pitch has been high level.”

Hall earned his first England call-up in November, making his debut against Greece and featured alongside Tino Livramento and Anthony Gordon in the Three Lions win against Ireland at Wembley.

The 20-year-old has made 19 appearances in all competitions this season and bagged two assists in Saturday’s win against Leicester.

Lewis Hall is on a tightrope ahead of Brentford clash

If Hall is to feature in Wednesday’s League Cup quarter-final he needs to be careful. If he picks up a booking in the game against Brentford he will miss the first leg of the semi-final should Newcastle make it there.

Another player at risk of missing the next round is Gordon who picked up a booking in Newcastle’s win against Chelsea in October.

The Magpies will be without Sean Longstaff after he picked up two bookings and despite receiving a Premier League ban for accumulating yellow cards, Joelinton is eligible to play on Wednesday due to FA rulings.