Four games into Roland Duchatelet’s tenure and his team have yet to win a single league point. Four games, four defeats, one goal scored, eight conceded.

The Addicks are in the bottom three, two points behind fourth bottom Millwall and, worryingly, five points adrift of fifth bottom Doncaster.

Millwall will play twice before Charlton next see league action and the Lions will face both Yeovil and Barnsley in their next three games. The Addicks’ next three games will see them face two of the top three – Queens Park Rangers and Leicester – as well as entertaining Barnsley in the ultimate six pointer.

Though Chris Powell’s team will have games in hand, their current dismal form and lack of confidence, will make the points defecit seem like a chasm.

The Valley pitch and a rare cup run have left Charlton facing a fixture pile up.

Add in the upheaval that the loss of Ben Alnwick, Yann Kermorgant and Dale Stephens, plus the arrival of Astrit Ajdarevic, Yohann Thuram-Ulien, Loic Nego, Rega Ghoochannejhad, Piotr Parzyszek and Anil Koc has caused, and the threat to the club’s Championship is plain to see.

The Addicks have not won since Boxing Day and can only boast one victory in their last twelve league games. Right now, they are in a very dark place with little sign of light on the horizon.

Powell has mentioned publicly that he is concerned about his future and will meet with Duchatelet early this week. This has been interpreted as meaning that the manager could be dismissed.

Katrien Meire was heavily involved in all the January transfers and there are likely to be more new arrivals this week. Emergency loans can be for a maximum of 93 days, which will allow the new faces to stay at The Valley for the rest of the season.

Experienced, battled hardened Championship players will be needed for the last 18 matches to give Charlton a realistic survival chance. Identifying and recruiting the right players will be top of the agenda at Powell’s meeting with the owner.

Football is a results driven business and Duchatelet has not shown a propensity to be patient with managers at the other clubs he owns, so it would be naïve not to believe that Powell’s job is at risk.

The manager is far from being a great tactician and his team selections and substitutions are at times baffling.

There was an incident at the end of the Birmingham game. Alex Dyer and Andy Hughes had a disagreement at the side of the pitch, Dyer seemingly taking issue with Hughes for encouraging the team from the sidelines. Michael Morrison got involved too. Such incidents are symptomatic of a club in trouble and will have concerned the watching Meire.

The Addicks dominated possession against Birmingham but failed to convert their chances. They played more of a passing game, possibly fashioned by the absence of Kermorgant as an aerial outlet.

If things do not change, avoiding relegation will be impossible. Charlton are probably going to need around 27 points from their remaining 18 games to ensure their safety. That means averaging a win every two games which is a really tough ask for a struggling team, especially if there are extra cup games to play.

The Addicks have used different formations, changed many of the players but still failed to find consistent form.

Changing the manager is not guaranteed to turn things round but fresh ideas can give a team new impetus. Duchatelet does not have too many options left, putting a new man at the helm may be a card he feels he has to play in the near future.