Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew believes losing key players after the middle of the season has seen the club drop down the standings.
The Magpies were disadvantaged when Yohan Cabaye joined Paris Saint-Germain for around £20million at the end of January while stars such as Loic Remy, Mathieu Debuchy and Tim Krul have all spent time on the sidelines.
Newcastle have lost three of their past four matches to drop to ninth on the table and Pardew suggests it is down to the fact that the aforementioned have been missing in action.
"The mid-season was really strong for us and the injuries to Loic and the transfer of Cabaye have impacted on our quality, there's no doubt about that," said Pardew.
"We are grinding towards the end unfortunately, and that's not what we want. We want to be a lot more easy on the eye, and lot more fluent in what we are doing than we are.
"But we have become a very functional team now, and that's what has really got to get us through until such time as Loic is back and Mathieu is back and Tim is back."
The Toon will look to stop the rot when they host seventh-placed Manchester United at St James' Park this Saturday.
