FOR far too long now, Sunderland have had to become accustomed to turmoil. Even by their own shambolic standards, however, reaching crisis point just two games into the season represents a new low.

Just when you think things cannot get worse, the Black Cats somehow find a way of taking their collective ineptitude to a whole new level. And this, don’t forget, is a club that once went through an entire Premier League season picking up just 15 points.

It would be ridiculous to suggest that the current squad would do well to even match that tally, but the fact that such a scenario can even be raised as a point of reference underlines just how calamitous the first two games of the season have been.

If the opening-day capitulation at Leicester was alarming, Saturday’s humiliating home defeat to newly-promoted Norwich City was the point at which Sunderland’s status transformed from concerning to critical.

On the pitch, the errors that littered the defeat at the King Power Stadium were in evidence again, along with some new ones that enabled Norwich’s players to repeatedly punch holes in a defence that is not even worthy of the name.

You have to go back to 1970 to find the last time Sunderland conceded seven goals in their opening two league games, and for all that the last few seasons have been disastrous, the ill-fated start to the 2006-07 Championship season under Niall Quinn was the last time the Black Cats failed to pick up a point from their first two outings of the campaign.

The organisation and spirit that characterised the final two months of last season under Dick Advocaat have completely disappeared, and given the extent of their struggles for the majority of the last three campaigns, it is tempting to conclude that Sunderland’s players have simply reverted to type. What does it say about their professionalism if it is going to take another change of manager to stir them into life?

Advocaat’s willingness to depart at the end of last season means there is always a risk he will throw in the towel and walk away, and judging by the reaction of Sunderland’s fans in the wake of Saturday’s latest debacle, few would blame him if he did.

Whereas previous humiliations have seen the Stadium of Light faithful turn on Steve Bruce, Paolo Di Canio and Gus Poyet, it was telling that Advocaat was not criticised at all at the weekend. Instead, for the first time, it was owner Ellis Short who was the focus of the fans’ ire.

“Are you watching Ellis Short?” chanted the supporters at regular intervals during the second half. He wasn’t, because he has not attended every home game for quite a while now, but his reaction to the events of the last two weekends will go a long way towards determining his club’s fortunes over the remainder of the campaign.

Having promised to back Advocaat in the transfer market at the start of the summer, it is time for Short to live up to his words. There are limitations to what he can do, with the current wage bill close to the permitted limit under Financial Fair Play regulations and his desire to invest further bound to have been sapped by a succession of dreadful signings that are still proving costly, but the harsh reality is that if no one else arrives before the transfer window closes, it is hard to see how the current squad can survive.

An alternative to van Aanholt at left-back is desperately required – former loanee Marcos Alonso would be a logical target – while the dearth of creativity in midfield was glaringly apparent once again when posited against the vibrancy of a Norwich side containing the quicksilver Nathan Redmond and the inventive Wes Hoolahan.

That said, however, it is impossible to claim that any Sunderland player – with the honourable exception of 21-year-old debutant Duncan Watmore – is playing at a level anywhere near to their best, and it is to be hoped that yesterday’s ‘crisis meeting’ at the training ground resulted in a change of attitude ahead of Saturday’s game with Swansea.

Organisationally, Sunderland are all over the place at the moment, and Advocaat desperately needs to identify a formation that best plays to his players’ strengths. Saturday’s didn’t, with Lee Cattermole, Seb Larsson and Yann M’Vila forming a pedestrian midfield while Jermain Defoe looked like a fish out of water on the right flank.

Just as pertinently, however, Sunderland’s players need to start taking much more responsibility for their own actions. All too often, there was no one closing down the Norwich player is possession of the ball, no one tracking opposition runners into the penalty area. If you’re not even prepared to do that, all talk of systems goes out of the window.

“There’s two sides to the game, and you have to do the ugly side as well,” said Cattermole. “If you’re getting beat, and you’re conceding the goals that we’re getting beaten by, then it’s because you’re not defending and shutting people down well enough. That’s the whole of the team and the whole of the squad.

“Improving that is how you’ll stop conceding goals, and maybe we’ll have to get back to the basics and not even try to be pretty. We need to show some fight and commitment and look to keep a clean sheet.”

Sunderland’s hopes of keeping a clean sheet against Norwich disappeared midway through the first half when Russell Martin fortuitously deflected home the rebound after Costel Pantilimon had saved from Robbie Brady. That the goal originated from a short corner highlighted the Black Cats’ defensive negligence.

Steven Whittaker added a second before the break following a slick one-two with Hoolahan, and when both van Aanholt and Cattermole switched off from a quick throw-in, Redmond danced into the area in the 57th minute to score his side’s third.

Watmore’s arrival from the substitutes’ bench at least provided some welcome energy, and the youngster claimed his first senior goal when he found the corner of the net after Jeremain Lens’ free-kick was not cleared.