Howe hails transformational Newcastle duo & explains dilemma heading to Marseille
It can’t be denied that Newcastle United play their best football with our two first-choice fullbacks available, and Saturday was perfect proof of that.
From the very first minute, the duo of Lewis Hall and Tino Livramento showed just what we’ve been missing in recent weeks. Their direct play, bundles of energy, fast patterns of play and a more relaxed feeling in the defence when working our way out of tight situations was clear, with Tino also defending superbly against Jeremy Doku.
Speaking after the game, Howe couldn't dish out enough praise to the pair who made such a difference down both flanks against Man City:
“You saw Lewis Hall's technical ability, considering again the length of time he's been out and he's one that hadn't trained with us, so we hadn't really seen him during the international break. It was a great performance from him.
“He took the ball under pressure, linked really well with Harvey, ran forward when he was able to in that first half before his legs started to tire.
“And then you go to Tino who had stayed with us and had done a lot of hard work. I thought physically he looked unbelievable, considering he's seven weeks out.
"It was a really high-level performance against a very dangerous opponent, so I did think they both played really well.”
Howe then discussed Hall's fitness after the full-back was forced off with cramp, explaining that he is still "some way short" of being able to play 90 minutes after building his way back from a hamstring issue.
This leaves it slightly unclear if Hall will be able to start both games next week against Marseille and Everton, but the boss is clearly delighted with his return to the line-up:
“I think it was just cramp, which wasn’t totally unexpected that Lewis would probably suffer that way, having missed the amount of football and just the change in intensity from England [U21], because he went away with England, compared to these games.
“They’re totally different. That’s why we’ve tried to build him up to full fitness. He’s still sort of some way short of being able to complete 90 but the minutes that he did play, I thought he was outstanding. He showed all his best qualities."
