Borussia Dortmund captain Nico Schlotterbeck believed a lack of "guts" and "courage" were key in their loss to Bayern Munich on Saturday. 

Dortmund's unbeaten run to start the season was snapped by a 2-1 defeat to their rivals at Allianz Arena, leaving them fourth in the Bundesliga and seven points behind Bayern.

Nico Kovac's side registered just one shot on target in the match, their only goal from Julian Brandt in the 84th minute, while they gave away seven attempts in the loss.

Schlotterbeck believes the Dortmund players knew what they had to do to win in Munich, but did not follow through on their plan.

"I said to the lads before the match: if you want to survive in Munich, you have to play with courage, with forward drive, with guts, and we completely lacked that in the first half," he said. 

"We were untidy in our play and didn't win tackles. The second half offers encouragement, though, because I think we were even better than Bayern.

"Nevertheless, over the 90 minutes and in the first half especially, it wasn’t enough overall and then you're just not going to win in Munich."

Dortmund head coach Nico Kovac was more kind with his assessment of the defeat, largely down to their superior second half.

"Obviously we're disappointed: with the result and particularly the first half. The second half was considerably better," said Kovac.

"I think the spectators nevertheless saw a good Klassiker. It's a shame we didn't get the equaliser but we just weren't good enough in the first half.

"We needed a few more minutes in the second half, then maybe we would've done it."