After shipping 11 goals in the space of a week, most teams would be feeling the heat.
Schalke are but it is a different kind of heat, as they were humbled by none other than Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League and Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga respectively.
Captain Benedikt Howedes said the quality of their opposition was no excuse for copping 6-1 and 5-1 defeats lightly.
"Both of these opponents are a class apart, but even so, we shouldn't have been beaten as comprehensively as we were," Howedes said on Wednesday.
"We can only apologise to the fans for our performance."
Howedes did take the positives out of the week, as they drew the second half against Bayern 1-1 - and that was after Kiriakos Papadopoulos was sent off, and Arjen Robben converted the resultant penalty.
"We’ve got to leave these two games behind us now," Howedes said.
"I hope we can forget about them before the next game and play like we did in the second half (against Bayern)."
Schalke were one of the form teams of the Bundesliga prior to their horrid week, unbeaten in five matches including four wins and occupying - as they still do - a top-four spot.
And midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng was not sugar coating the results, as they prepare for a crunch match with another high-scoring team, Hoffenheim, at the weekend.
"It was nothing like what we expected. It was a horrendous week for us," Boateng said.
"We've got to stick together."
