After the year Newcastle United have had on the pitch, you would have been forgiven for thinking that we'd be hard pressed to find five individual performances that were worth writing home about. Despite Steve McClaren, his new backroom team, and over £50 million worth of signings heralding what we all thought was a new dawn at St James' Park, Newcastle followed a worrying trend all year long that doesn't look like leaving the squad any time soon. There's a losing mentality around NE1 at the moment. It's solely in Mike Ashley's hands whether that leaves or not. You don't need me to tell you how he can do that... The Magpies managed to win just eight games throughout a year that nearly saw them relegated to the Championship, prevented only by a Jonas Gutierrez inspired final day win over West Ham, while they finished the year in the bottom three after a typically demoralising 1-0 away defeat to West Brom. You can label poor coaching and management for the Black and White's current plight - or a lack of effort in Moussa Sissoko's case - but the fact remains that the players simply don't perform regularly enough. Maybe they're the biggest problem? Nevertheless, here are the five Best Newcastle Player Performances Of 2015...
