Lewis Hall: From fourth-choice Newcastle left-back to England call-up

When heaping praise on Lewis Hall, Lee Carsley opted to highlight the most rudimentary of characteristics.

“One of the fortunate things he’s got is he is left-footed and playing at left-back,” the interim England head coach said when announcing his final squad, as if this was an entirely new phenomenon. Yet Carsley was highlighting an alarming wider issue: the scarcity of left-backs.

This shortage has helped shape Hall’s career trajectory: it was the genesis for his transition from midfield to full-back, a key reason Newcastle United signed him, and has ensured his fast-tracking into the England senior squad.

That is not to denigrate Hall’s rise, because his excellent recent performances for Newcastle warrant such recognition.

But his assured appearance during Sunday’s win over Nottingham Forest came just a year after he was hooked at half-time at Bournemouth. That was Hall’s fourth start for Newcastle and the third occasion Eddie Howe had withdrawn him at the interval.

Despite Newcastle facing an unprecedented injury crisis, Hall would not make another Newcastle start for almost five months and found himself as fourth-choice left-back, behind Dan Burn (a centre-half), Tino Livramento and Kieran Trippier (both right-backs). Had Matt Targett been fit, Hall would likely have been fifth choice.

Senior Newcastle figures urged patience, but calmness was difficult to preach, given £28million ($35.7m at present exchange rates) from a restricted budget had been committed to a left-back who was not deemed ready.

As Howe and his coaches diligently worked with Hall on the training ground, the onus shifted to the then teenager to accept his future lay as a left-back. Sven Botman’s anterior cruciate ligament injury in March and Burn’s return to centre-half offered Hall a chance and he has grasped it, starting 16 games since.

He has arguably been Newcastle’s player of the season, certainly their most improved, and the club believe the fee now looks a bargain, given he could be England’s left-back for a decade or longer.

In September 2023, a senior figure at Newcastle told The Athletic the opportunity to bring in Hall was “too good” to pass up. Hall and Tino Livramento were signed that summer because the lack of top-quality full-backs was something Newcastle had identified.

“We felt if we didn’t grab the opportunity to take him when we did, we would possibly regret that in a year,” Howe said this month.

The hierarchy took some convincing initially, given the fee. Although an initial loan suited Newcastle’s compliance with profit and sustainability rules (PSR), the obligation-to-buy clause affected their future financial standing.

Howe’s confidence he could mould Hall into a top-class performer helped persuade the board this represented shrewd business in the long run.

The recruitment team had watched Hall for Chelsea and England’s youth sides, when he was still a midfielder. Newcastle then began tracking Hall more closely following his impressive Premier League debut, when he played at St James’ Park as a left wing-back in December 2022.

Newcastle had scouted Hall while he was playing in midfield for Chelsea and England youth teams (Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

In January and early summer 2023, Chelsea rebuffed Newcastle’s interest, to the point that Hall signed a six-year contract extension. Yet, less than a fortnight later, as Chelsea’s own PSR considerations came to the fore, Newcastle opened negotiations.

According to a club source, who like others in this piece spoke anonymously to protect relationships, it was Howe and the coaching team who drove the deal for Hall. The head coach stressed that full-backs were essential to his approach, in and out of possession, and so succession planning for Trippier and Burn was deemed critical. The hierarchy trusted Howe’s judgement, given his track record developing players.

Hall recently referenced Luke Shaw as being a player he admires and, behind the scenes, Howe likened him stylistically to the Manchester United left-back when driving forward with the ball.

Howe was so taken by Hall because of his technical quality from his midfield days, his ability and desire to attack and, as with Carsley, the fact he was left-footed, which bizarrely has become a precious commodity in a left-back.

England and Manchester United left-back Luke Shaw is a player Hall looks up to (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)

For all the positives, acquiring Hall was also a calculated gamble.

Defensively, Hall was a novice left-back. He played most of his youth career as a dynamic ball-carrying midfielder and had often been used as a left wing-back at Chelsea and even, on occasion, as a left-sided centre-half.

Positionally, he still had a lot to learn. His understanding of the left-back role in a back four was still in its infancy, and Howe knew Hall had to be better at one-on-one battles, preventing opposition wingers from crossing, and protecting space in behind. Fitness-wise, he was also significantly short of the levels required.

While there may have been internal appreciation of the necessity of Hall’s maturation process, that proved a difficult message to communicate externally.

On 15 occasions last season, Hall was an unused substitute. His only Champions League appearance came at Borussia Dortmund, one of the three occasions he was replaced at the break. In the Premier League, he managed only 781 minutes and did not complete a full 90 until May.

“I wasn’t at the level I could have been in training,” Hall told NUFCTV in May. “(Howe’s training) is incredibly difficult, a lot harder than I thought it’d be. Tactically and technically you have to be superb.”

Most players take time to adapt to Howe’s requirements — it took Anthony Gordon six months — and Hall had further mitigation. He played just 76 minutes during Chelsea’s pre-season and only joined Newcastle on August 22, meaning he lacked match fitness. Moving away from home as an 18-year-old was also difficult because, although his father supports Newcastle, Hall was born in Slough in Berkshire.

Howe rarely picked Hall during the first half of last season because he did not feel the player was ready.

The head coach was protecting the team but, as insiders insisted, he was also protecting Hall. Howe knew that if he played Hall regularly too soon and he struggled, it risked negatively affecting his long-term development.

“I went in there with the anticipation of playing a lot more than I did,” Hall, who turned 20 in September, told reporters this week. “There’s a lot of times after training where I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t really frustrated. I would never give up, but I was starting to doubt little things. But I stuck with it.”

Hall’s diligent attitude and his relentless desire to improve confirmed the character references Newcastle had received. There were double training sessions, strength and fitness work, additional video-review work with analysts, as Hall pushed for feedback as to how he could improve.

A mental realignment was also required.

Howe and Hall at the Newcastle training ground in August 2023 (Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images)

Before he left Chelsea, Hall harboured hopes of being a midfielder. While Newcastle valued his versatility — Hall’s first start came as a left-sided forward during an excruciating Carabao Cup appearance against Manchester City, when he shifted to left No 8 and left-back before he was withdrawn at half-time — they believed his future was at full-back.

Hall’s remarks this week that, career-wise, he feels he has “more ability at left-back than in midfield” confirmed his mentality shift.

At the start of this season, Howe envisioned Lloyd Kelly and Hall dovetailing at left-back, with the former being used more in away games. But, having started just two of the opening five league matches, Hall replaced Kelly at Fulham on September 21 and his performances have made him an ever-present.

What has been most encouraging have been Hall’s defensive contributions. According to fbref.com, which ranks players between 0 and 99 compared to others in their position, Hall is in the 99th percentile in the Premier League this season for blocks (2.0 per 90 minutes) and the 94th for aerial duels won (1.7 per 90). Hall shackled Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka this month and performed well against Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva and Nottingham Forest’s Anthony Elanga.

In possession, Hall ranks in the top 20 per cent of Premier League full-backs for almost every metric, with his progressive passing distance — the combined forward distance of his completed passes — in the 99th percentile (427.1 yards per 90) and his passes into the final third in the 96th (5.7 per 90).

Offensively, Newcastle know Hall will deliver far more in time. He got his solitary Premier League assist against Chelsea, but his expected assists (xA) — which measures the expected value of shots that immediately follow a pass — is 0.21 per 90, which is in the 91st percentile, the same as for carries (44.5 per 90) and total carrying distance (206.0 per 90).

As Newcastle evolve away from predominantly having a centre-half at left-back, Hall’s strength offensively and in possession will become critical. Only Trippier (85.2) averages more touches per 90 for Newcastle this season than Hall (81). That highlights how central Hall is becoming to their build-up play.

Hall is also trusted — and physically able — to complete matches now, playing 90 minutes in five of his last seven starts. His form, allied with his huge ceiling for growth, presents Hall with an exciting opportunity for club and country.

In their last 13 matches, England have only started with a specialist left-back once. Shaw, Levi Colwill, Rico Lewis, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Trippier, who has now retired, have played there across the last six games. Alongside Crystal Palace’s Tyrick Mitchell and Ipswich Town’s Leif Davis, Hall is one of only three specialist England-qualified left-backs playing regularly in the Premier League.

Thomas Tuchel already knows Hall well, too, having handed the youngster his Chelsea debut and moved him to left-back.

As Hall asserts, his game “is completely different now to back then”. The non-linear nature of his development may have been challenging, but it has also been the making of Hall as a left-back.

(Top photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)