Borussia Dortmund are facing a battle for Bundesliga survival, sporting director Michael Zorc has admitted.
Zorc's comments came after the weekend's 2-0 defeat at Frankfurt left the 2013 Champions League finalists at the foot of the table for the first time in 29 years.
Following BVB's eighth defeat in 13 games, he told reporters: "It's just like Lindenstrasse [one of Germany's most popular soap operas]. It's on every week.
"We are stuck in a relegation battle. In the last few weeks, we paid attention to the gap to the top -- but that's over now."
BVB have four games before the winter break in which to try to claw their way up the table, and the club's staunch backing of coach Jurgen Klopp appears unchanged.
Klopp has also vowed to continue his work, and Zorc said: "Jurgen takes on the responsibility, and we are 100 percent convinced that we'll get out of the situation together."
But local newspaper Ruhr Nachrichten wrote: "It's only about avoiding relegation. The golden days in Dortmund are over for now." The paper said that "never before in history has a better-staffed squad" been at the foot of the Bundesliga.
"BVB are not there just because of pure coincidence," it added. "In a negative sense, they worked hard for it. While at the beginning the injuries and the fragmented preseason might have been excuses, they are now playing like a club struggling to stay in the league."
Spiegel opined that BVB played "like a relegated team," and questioned whether the players had accepted the reality of their situation.