Schalke, who grabbed fourth place last season after imploding midway through the campaign only to battle back in the final weeks, had hoped for a confidence-boosting start this time round but have so far failed to deliver.
They followed up a 3-3 opening draw with Hamburg SV by suffering a 4-0 demolition at the hands of VfL Wolfsburg last week.
With the club drawing 1-1 against Greece's PAOK in their Champions League qualifying first leg on Wednesday, fans are quickly running out of patience and their jeers and whistles in the European tie did not go unnoticed.
Even brief scuffles broke out among Schalke fans and police after the Greeks equalised and Schalke's misery was complete when Jefferson Farfan was taken off on a stretcher with an ankle injury.
The Peruvian midfielder will undergo medical tests later on Thursday to determine the extent of the injury.
Last week, top striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar was ruled out for several weeks with a knee injury along with defender Sead Kolasinac, who is nursing a muscle problem.
Central defender Kyriakos Papadopoulos, who is still recovering from an injury of his own, has yet to play this season.
New signing Adam Szalai is under pressure to hit the ground running and make up for the loss of Huntelaar up front.
For coach Jens Keller, initially brought in as a temporary solution late last year but given a new deal after the team's good finish to the season, the early pressure is nothing new.
"Obviously we are not satisfied with the results but we had that kind of pressure last season as well so nothing unusual there," Keller told reporters.
"What we will have to see is whether we will have enough fit players for the weekend and for next week's (return leg at PAOK)," Keller said.
Hanover could not have hoped for better timing as they look to bounce back from a 3-0 defeat to Borussia Moenchengladbach.
"We know that Schalke will be coming to us with a lot of ambitions and they will want to shake off that 4-0 defeat from last week," said Hanover midfielder Leon Andreasen, back after a year out with a cruciate ligament rupture.
"But we know we can beat anyone at home and so we must forget about the Glabdach defeat and get a good result this week."
Treble winners Bayern Munich host Nuremberg in Saturday's traditional Bavarian derby, while fellow Champions League competitors Borussia Dortmund entertain mercurial Werder Bremen on Friday.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann)
