3. The Fitness Coach
One of the major excuses for last year's poor performance, and the near fatal fade away that almost lead to relegation in the second half of the season was the lack of squad depth to cope with the sheer number of injuries the squad had to overcome. At various stages over the course of the season, most of the team's key players spent some time out of the side thanks to injury. The squad suffered a massive 41 major injuries over the season, which accounted for an eye-watering 1745 lost days (almost 1300 more than Stoke who had the fewest lost days to injury, and just 16 major injuries.) Fabricio Coloccini, Yohan Cabaye, Hatem Ben Arfa, Steven Taylor, Tim Krul and Ryan Taylor all missed significant portions of the season (all of it in the latter's case) and the worst run of injuries coincided with the team's poorest run of form. To help keep some of those injuries down, Newcastle have hired a new strength and conditioning coach in the shape of Faye Downey, who has some eye-catching experience with the England rugby squad, British Olympians and the Leicester Tigers. If she does her job as expected, and Newcastle can strengthen their spine, and not lose so many players to injury, the chances of seeing another late season fade should be significantly reduced.