This is going to be a long few weeks for Norwich City fans.

With relegation seeming almost inevitable and little sign of any sort of progress on the field, there is a creeping malaise about the club which is distinctly unhealthy and visibly eroding any remaining enthusiasm from even the most committed supporters.

Last Saturday’s match at Brighton was yet another opportunity to at least generate some momentum, but all that transpired was effectively a game of defence against attack in which City failed to generate a single shot on target and were hugely indebted to Grant Hanley and Tim Krul for a point.

Even then it required an afternoon of utter incompetence in front of goal from Neil Maupay to see them through, while Brighton’s keeper could easily have spent the afternoon in a deckchair, such was his lack of involvement.

It would be hard to be too critical of City’s defenders given the huge amount of pressure they were under for the full 90 minutes, but Sam Byram’s needless handball for the penalty and the shambolic marking at some of Brighton’s corners spoke of players whose minds were scrambled.

Part of that was due to the dreadful performance of City’s midfield, which struggled throughout to win the ball, and invariably when having done so proceeded to give it away again.

The unit simply isn’t functioning, either in terms of providing adequate protection for the back four or offering any sort of creativity for Teemu Pukki to feed off.

I’ve seen some suggestions that the Finn may be past his best, but anyone who watched him pick up a channel pass, ghost past a defender and calmly slot the ball into the far corner in the recent international against Iceland must realise that the problems behind City’s lack of goals don’t primarily lie with him.

Yes, he may have missed a few chances this season, but when a striker is living off scraps it’s hardly surprising if he tends to snatch at the minimal opportunities that come his way.

I would also defend Dean Smith, simply because I don’t think he has the players to allow him to play the style that he wants, and he can’t really be judged properly until he has.

The simple fact is that none of the midfielders who started at Brighton has produced anything like enough this season, which makes the lack of opportunities for Jacob Sorensen hard to understand.

Before his injury, Mathias Normann looked motivated and capable of lifting those around him as he did at Brentford, but since his return he has been disappointing and looks like a player thinking about his next move.

Pierre Lees-Melou has shown signs of quality but has tended to drift in and out of games and hasn’t shown the accurate shooting from distance that was a feature of his game at Nice.

However, the biggest issue is the Kenny McLean/Billy Gilmour partnership.

McLean is a quality player in the Championship, but has now failed twice to make a significant mark in the Premier League, while Gilmour continues to frustrate City fans, although in fairness to him he is clearly a square peg in a round hole.

He’s not a creator like Emi Buendia and will always pale in comparison to Olly Skipp as a holding midfielder, but that doesn’t make him a bad player, just someone who finds himself in the wrong team at the wrong time.

Fundamentally, he’s currently not half as good as some Chelsea fans think, and not half as bad as some City fans believe, but he will develop into a very good player and benefit from his experience here, while City will not.

What’s desperately needed now is a performance that gives the fans something to cheer about because the reality is that there is a real sense of disengagement from this group of players, and that’s worrying in the extreme.