Newcastle United comfortably saw off the challenge of Hull City at the MKM Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Alexander Isak and Jacob Murphy scored goals to help Newcastle start their preseason friendlies with a 2-0 victory over the Tigers on Saturday in Hull.
Although Newcastle has played a few friendly matches behind closed doors, this was our first opportunity to see Newcastle United after the humiliating 8-0 loss in Australia.
In the first half, Eddie Howe fielded his best team yet, with four full-backs occupying a variety of positions.
We were very impressed with Lewis Hall against Hull
The player who emerged as the “new signing” when Lewis Hall’s season-long loan from Chelsea became permanent satisfied our curiosity about who of the four would be moved into midfield.
Hall moved fluidly in the midfield, slinging long and short passes to everyone in his path and joining the Newcastle assault.
He had clearly been paying attention in training and worked hard to get into Howe’s thoughts, as we saw at the conclusion of the previous season, and his performance at Hull tonight will have done him no damage at all.
Hall is brimming with potential
Although it’s merely a preseason friendly against a Championship team, he can only play against what’s in front of him, and he easily handled Hull.
The only player who truly equaled him in performance was Jacob Murphy, who looked razor-sharp and delivered many balls into the box that ought to have resulted in goals. He did offer the assist for Isak, who made an incredible run that split the defenders to get a toe on Murphy’s cross and poke it in.
Then, in strange circumstances, a few minutes later, Murphy increased the lead. Once more, Murphy whipped in a low cross out on the right that begged for a touch but didn’t, which actually prompted
But going back to Lewis Hall: Eddie Howe won’t have room in the midfield with a full team, so if the 19-year-old wants to start on a regular basis, he’ll need to take up the left-back position. This means that, contrary to Howe’s previous reluctance to use him, we’ll see more of him defensively. However, if he can perfect that aspect of his game, he’s sure to be a huge star.
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