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Under-fire Dortmund boss Peter Bosz insists he is not feeling the pressure as he gets his first taste of a Revierderby against Schalke on Saturday.
Fourth-placed Dortmund take on their fierce local rivals at the Signal-Iduna Park in a terrible run of form, which has piled on the pressure on their Dutch head coach just five months into his reign.
The hosts have won only once in all competitions since a 2-1 success at Augsburg in the Bundesliga on September 30 - losing six of their last nine matches, including Tuesday's 2-1 Champions League home defeat to Tottenham.
In league action, BVB have picked up just one point from a possible 15 but the 54-year-old Bosz is confident his side can turn their fortunes around and earn the bragging rights.
"I try to ignore it (the specualtion surrounding his job). I am a football coach. I know anything can happen," the told the club's official website.
"It's my first Revierderby. When I was still a player and coach in Holland, they also talked about this derby there. It has to be something special.
"I am only focused on the match tomorrow. This is the one we have to win by all means, and all of us have to give it our all.
"Schalke win their matches. They've won four of their last five, I think. If we work as team, with our quality we can beat Schalke."
Goalkeeper Roman Burki is doubtful after he was substituted in the loss against Spurs following a heavy collision with striker Fernando Llorente.
Christian Pulisic, who has missed the last two matches through muscular problems, and Sokratis Papastathopoulos (rib) will need late fitness tests but Marco Reus, Lukasz Piszczek (both knee), Sebastian Rode (leg) and Erik Durm (hip) are long-term absentees.
Domenico Tedesco will also take charge of his first Revierderby clash after replacing Markus Weinzierl as Schalke boss in the summer.
The 32-year-old head coach, who joined from second division side Erzgebirge Aue, has guided Die Konigsblauen to second place in the Bundesliga table with seven victories in their opening 12 league matches.
Dortmund will leapfrog Tedesco's side with victory, but the Italian-born manager, who will take charge of just his 26th game of his senior managerial career, understands the magnitute of the clash.
He told the club's official website: "Ever since I've been Schalke coach, the fans have always told me how important winning the derby is to them.
"We're approaching this game just as focused as we are for any other fixture. If I said we were approaching this game any differently, that would be implying that we're not 100 per cent focused.
"The current table will play no role for me. It's all very tight. The highs and lows come very quickly in football."
Germany international Leon Goretzka has returned to training and is contention to start after recovering from a stress fracture to his lower leg, with only Nabil Bentaleb (hip) and Pablo Insua (heart problems) unavailable for Schalke.