Mühlhausen coach Erik Schreyer: " Upset heads do not fit to us ".

A dream start looks different: Champions League participant Post SV Mühlhausen finds itself in the bottom of the table after the season opener in the Table Tennis Bundesliga (TTBL) due to defeats at Borussia Düsseldorf (0:3) and Werder Bremen (1:3). Coach Erik Schreyer talks in an interview about the reasons for his team's bumpy start to the season and the reasons for his hope for an emphatic improvement in performance like last season.

Erik Schreyer, after two rounds you are at the bottom of the table tennis Bundesliga with Post SV Mühlhausen without any points. Do you perceive this situation in the TTBL as a deja vu experience after the initial problems last season?

We are actually kind of used to this situation, but of course you don't wish it to be like this. But we already know from last season how quickly the tide can turn again and how things can go up even after a bumpy start. Now, as then, one of our greatest strengths is that we have a good atmosphere in our team, even after defeats. Dropping our heads doesn't suit us and our mentality.

From your point of view, what went wrong in the first two games at defending champions Borussia Düsseldorf and Werder Bremen?

Well, it's certainly always difficult to win in Düsseldorf, but we weren't too bad in Bremen either. I saw a lot of positive things there, too.

But didn't Daniel Habesohn or Ovidiu Ionescu also have to struggle with dips in form after the European Championships in Munich?

For both of them, the first matches were not that easy. First of all, you always have to acknowledge the strength of the opponent, but the international calendar is a big burden. The players only had one week's vacation in total, so it's only natural to have a lull and not always be able to deliver the maximum performance week after week. Particularly because of the strain, we brought in Kim Taehyun from South Korea after Irvin Bertrand's operation, because it would have been too risky with just three players.

How do you expect the season to go?

Some teams should be hard to beat, but there will also be some surprises in this league, if you just consider that the cup winner and runner-up 1. FC Saarbrücken TT loses to TTC Zugbrücke Grenzau. There will be a few more of these, so that the fourth in the table will certainly only enter the play-offs with a few minus points. We ourselves will get stronger again the longer the season lasts. On the one hand, Irvin will be back in November or December, and on the other hand, our experiences last year have made us a really cohesive group.

Does the also still winless promoted team 1. FSV Mainz 05 in Monday's game in a real basement duel come just at the right time for you to take the first step towards such a development?

I wouldn't call it a basement match at this point in the season, but we're obliged to play anyway because it's our first home game of the new season. We're hoping for the same support from our fans as last year, but even in such a witch's cauldron, success won't be a foregone conclusion, because rumor has it that Mainz will be playing in their best lineup with their Japanese player Yuto Muramatsu - and then, even as a newcomer, they'll be an absolutely competitive first division team.