Dire Dortmund deserve criticism, admits Klopp

Posted Friday, February 06, 2015 by AFP

Berlin (AFP) - Jurgen Klopp on Thursday ruled out resigning from the Bundesliga's bottom side Borussia Dortmund as they battle to avoid their first relegation from Germany's top flight since 1972.

Dortmund suffered their 11th defeat of the season in losing 1-0 at home to fourth-placed Augsburg on Wednesday, even though their opponents played the last 20 minutes with ten men.

The 2013 Champions League finalists were jeered by their own fans after the final whistle, but Klopp says he has no thoughts of walking away with his contract running until June 2018.

"I can rule out resigning," insisted the 47-year-old who has been in his job since 2008.

"After only two games this year, the tank isn't completely empty.

"Resignation wasn't on my mind on Wednesday, so accordingly it's not an issue for me."

Klopp has been given a job guarantee by Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke on the back of four successful years which saw Dortmund win the title in 2011 and 2012 and come second in the following two seasons.

They are also in the Champions League last-16 and have thir first le clash at Italian league leaders Juventus coming up as they try to get off the bottom of the Bundesliga.

Their next chance to claim some badly needed points comes at fellow strugglers Freiburg on Saturday.

Klopp revealed Dortmund will be playing without Kevin Grosskreutz for six weeks as the Germany midfielder has torn a thigh muscle and joins Ilkay Gundogan, Erik Durm and Lukasz Piszczek on the injury list.

- Bad reaction -

Klopp admitted he was surprised how badly his side reacted after Raul Bobadilla scored Augsburg's 50th-minute winner as panic set in.

"I thought we were above that, but we were badly shaken after conceding that goal," said Klopp.

"Our decision making is poor. We have to be more courageous to allow ourselves to make the right decisions."

With his team desperately low on confidence, Klopp says boosting moral is now a top priority.

"The fact that nerves play a role in a situation like this is beyond question. We need to get a grip," he said.

"We have to give the boys some faith back.

"It's something we have already been working on the whole time, but clearly not enough."

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.

Dortmund's trademark free-flowing football, which carried them to the 2013 Champions League final, has deserted them as they have scored just 18 goals in 19 league games.

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.

"Our problem is simply that we are not going ahead in games," said captain Mats Hummels.

"We can now expect to fight in the next 15 matches, anything else is a bonus.

"We know that it's over 98 percent about fighting.

"The last two percent are about staying relaxed so that we make the right decisions in front of goal."