Dire Borussia Dortmund Deserve Criticism – Klopp

Dortmund slumped again in Wednesday’s 1-0 defeat at home to fourth-placed Augsburg, who played the last 20 minutes with ten men.
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Borussia are desperately low on confidence and have just three league games before their Champions League last 16, first-leg clash at Italian league leaders Juventus.
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The 2011 and 2012 German champions are facing their first relegation since 1972, but have another chance to claim some badly needed points at fellow strugglers Freiburg on Saturday.
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Borussia’s passionate fans voiced their frustrations with a chorus of whistles after the Augsburg match as veteran goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller and captain Mats Hummels approached the terraces to address their disgruntlement.
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“The result hurts, but we can’t pretend that we had nothing to do with the outcome,” admitted Dortmund’s head coach Klopp.
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“We didn’t do anything with our main chances, so there’s nothing positive to report.
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“After that performance the fans can accuse us of everything, but we will not give up.
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“The fact that nerves play a role in a situation like this is beyond question. We need to get a grip.
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“We have to give the boys some faith back.
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“It’s something we have already been working on the whole time, but clearly not enough.”
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Dortmund’s next three opponents are all in the bottom half of the table as they face Freiburg, Mainz and Stuttgart in the next fortnight.
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Dortmund’s trademark free-flowing football, which carried them to the 2013 Champions League final, has all but deserted them as they have scored just 18 goals in 19 league games.
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Klopp has failed to find an adequate striker since Robert Lewandowski joined Bayern Munich before the start of the season and their goal-supply has dried up.
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Ciro Immobile and Henrikh Mkhitaryan squandered clear chances to equalise late on against Augsburg.
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“Our problem is simply that we are not going ahead in games,” said captain Mats Hummels.
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“We can now expect to fight in the next 15 matches, anything else is a bonus.
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“We know that it’s over 98 percent about fighting.
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“The last two percent are about staying relaxed so that we make the right decisions in front of goal.”
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Klopp has a contract until June 2018, but is clearly under pressure to turn results around.