'Powerhouse' Hall is now 'undroppable'

In keeping with the theme of the season (inconsistency), Newcastle responded to a terrible display at Brentford with one of their more complete performances in beating Leicester City 4-0 on Saturday.

That Leicester were poor does not matter - because we have been unable to exploit technically bad teams all season.

What the weekend has done is give fans back a modicum of confidence as we go into a vital week for our season - Carabao Cup quarter-final, then Ipswich, then Aston Villa.

We seem to be finding our best starting XI, if you subscribe to that idea, and they have proven they can play together. I have previously talked about Sandro Tonali and if he fits into this squad. Well, it turns out he does - very effectively!

I want to turn my attention to Lewis Hall - a powerhouse on the left and a player who is so exciting to watch.

It is apparently the rule that when you talk about a younger player you mention their age, so... Hall is 20. Despite this youth, he is turning into one of the best, if not the best, left-back in the country (and has already been called up by England).

One of the reasons Newcastle could dominate at the weekend was because of how dangerous their left flank was. This was in no small part because of Hall.

When we got him from Chelsea, Blues fans were gutted and told me he was a huge loss for them. It took him a long time to get into our squad, but he is now undroppable.

His ability to push up the pitch, intelligence in reading the game, and work-rate are all integral to Newcastle's prospects of staying in the cup and moving up the table.

It will be interesting to see our defensive options when Sven Botman returns - but moving Hall out of position should not be one of them.

Find more from Charlotte Robson at the True Faith: Newcastle United Podcast