Borussia Dortmund are hoping their freshly laid turf will help them get back to winning ways when they host Hannover 96 at a sold-out Signal Iduna Park on Saturday afternoon. But the new grass has nothing to do with superstition.

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The famous jersey will be hanging in the dressing room on Saturday.

Right now Jürgen Klopp can have few complaints about a lack of creative ideas over how to deal with the team's run of poor results in the league . But neither the Champions League jersey or anthem will play any role either before or after the game against Hannover. There is a lot to be considered "but at the end of the day we have to defend better and more intelligently."

Nor was the old turf taken out because the team have already dropped eight home points so far this season. "We've lost away from home too," said Klopp, "and we didn't take our turf with us for those games." That is why you can't claim that the "rubbish pitch is to blame." No, the fault lies closer to home. And needs to be sorted immediately: "This situation has come about through our own doing, so now the pressure is on us. We have to withstand it and use it to up our concentration levels."

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The new pitch in the Signal Iduna Park.

And this against an opponent about whom Jürgen Klopp said: "They've got their own problems with results, it's been some time since they've scored a goal." Hannover have played 354 minutes since they last put the ball in the opposition’s net, but their opponents have included Bayern Munich and Borussia Mönchengladbach in that time. It doesn't matter whether the other team stays deep or even if they barricade themselves in their own half, "We have to attack in such a way that we don't leave ourselves wide open at the back," the coach said. "If they counter we have to make sure the counter-attack doesn't succeed, even once."

"Together we'll get through this!"

Patience is being asked for. Or in the words of the Dortmund coach: "I can't promise that someone who's half an hour late taking their seat will have missed two goals." Klopp is focussing more on working together with the spectators. "Our fans are fantastic. They don't want to replace us and we don't want to replace them. Together we'll get through this."