Aiming for home victories

Coach Herbert Müller successfully led Nürnberg in previous EHF Champions League campaigns, and helped them take some major scalps along the way.

With his current team, Müller helped Thüringer secure the double in the German League and secured an automatic qualification spot in the Champions League.

He talks to ehfCL.com about their Round 3 game against Byåsen, their current good form, the chances for the next three rounds and his aims for the rest of the season.

ehfCL.com: In Round 3 you played against Byåsen and onliy lost by one goal. Looking back, how do you feel?
Herbert Müller: It was very much a game of two halves, for both teams. We were level with them for about five minutes, but then we had several attacking fouls that disrupted our game plan. It looked like we’d stopped playing handball and our performance was really horrid. But despite being down by many goals my team never gives up, and we always fight until the final whistle. With this amazing fighting spirit we had a few chances to turn the match around, but in the end the Norwegians won.

ehfCL.com: Your back-court tried to score goals by shooting for the bottom of the goal. Was this part of your game plan?
Herbert Müller: I told the girls not to try to shoot over the goalkeeper the keeper and to aim at the top corners of the goal, as we knew that Byåsen´s goalkeeper Terese Pedersen will quite often drop down for shots. But unfortunately our shot selection at the last minute was wrong and that cost us the victory.

ehfCL.com: Was it because they were facing a strong defence, or just a mental thing, that your players didn´t follow your advice?
Herbert Müller: I think the players were not focused enough on putting our chances away. It was a real pity at the end, especially as we had shown a lot of heart and put in a lot of work to narrow the gap, and then you lose by one goal.

ehfCL.com: Where do you see Thüringer HC sitting among the elite of European handball?
Herbert Müller: I think that this year, we don´t have the top quality that’s needed to progress beyond the group phase. In my opinion we were much stronger last season, and had more possibilities and variations. Also, last season we didn´t suffer as many injuries as in the current season, and this has been a key factor in our performances in the EHF Champions League. We have to play games from week to week on two fronts: the German Bundesliga and the Champions League. At the moment we only have 10 field players, so there are less possibilities for variation from the bench. After winning the double in Germany we now plan to give more court time to young players like Petra Popluharova and Ewgenija Minevskaja. I think they deserve thatafter their excellent performances last season.

ehfCL.com: At the mid-point in the group phase, you played three matches, and despite great performances, lost them all. How do you see the team´s chances in the next three rounds?
Herbert Müller: Our main priority is the German Bundesliga, where we have had several games on Wednesdays that we wanted to win and not drop any points in the league. We successfully won the double last year and we want to give ourselves every chance of doing that again. But as long as we still have a chance of qualifying we´ll do our best in every match. Budućnost are a quality team with a good chance of winning the Champions League, but against FCM and Byåsen we´ll aim for victory in our home matches.