MAINZ: Borussia Dortmund are paying the price for their dismal record on the road in the Bundesliga after Saturday's 3-1 loss at Mainz 05 handed them their fourth consecutive away defeat and saw them drop to seventh place, coach Nuri Sahin said.
Dortmund were left with 10 men when captain Emre Can was dismissed with a red card for a wild tackle midway through the first half and the visitors never recovered.
The red card will pile further pressure on Can, who has been sharply criticised for his performances in recent weeks.
"Emre can't go into this challenge like that," Sahin, in his first season in charge, told a press conference. "He wins the first ball and then in the second effort he should stay up."
Last season's Champions League finalists, who won their midweek match against Sturm Graz in the competition, could not deliver a similar performance away from home on Saturday.
They have now dropped to seventh place on 16 points, 10 off leaders Bayern Munich.
"A difficult away game for us. Once we got that red card it got really hard," said Sahin.
"We have too few points on the road though I have to analyse today's defeat a bit differently than the other defeats because of the red card.
"With a few more points we would be somewhere else in the table. But for us we just are getting too few points." --REUTERS