Fabian Mayr: “We never saw the sun this year”

SportNews: Fabian Mayr, relegation to the national league has been decided since last Sunday. How deep is the sting of disappointment?

Fabian Mayr: I am extremely disappointed. We have been working towards promotion to the top league for years. We have been able to continuously improve in recent years under coach Martin Klotzner. Now it's back to the national league after just one year. Of course, this is not how we imagined our return to the top regional league.

Would you have thought before the start of the season that you would be back in the national league after just one year?

The possibility of relegation is always there. But we were quite confident that with a capable team we would score enough points to stay in the top league.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/6Mw0gMRa2Mo

What went wrong in the 2014/15 season?

We made too many individual mistakes. Each of them resulted in a goal being conceded. Conversely, we were far too rarely able to take advantage of our opponents' mistakes. We prepared very well and were also aware that the Oberliga and the Landesliga are two different pairs of shoes. We were also extremely unlucky with injuries and – in terms of quantity – we didn’t have as many players as other teams. We had three cruciate ligament tears in six months – that says it all. It was just a mess from the start and just not our season.

St. Pauls won the state league last year and was second and third in previous years. Could it be that your team was too used to success and therefore couldn't react to a crisis?

You should actually be able to process defeats and think about next Sunday. But it could be that we were too spoiled for success. In recent years, St. Paul's has always been used to being on the sunny side. We never saw the sun this year.

After a weak second half of the season, one would have expected a breakthrough in the spring series. However, St. Pauls have only recorded five draws in 12 matches. Why couldn't your team turn things around?

That is a difficult question. We initially trained well during the winter break, but three of us were injured in a friendly against Weinstraße Süd. After that, our coach sometimes only had eleven or twelve players available during training. We shared the training ground with Tramin and they worked with over 20 players. That was frustrating to see. At the same time, we knew that we had a hard time scoring goals. However, the club has decided not to become active on the transfer market. In retrospect, that could have been the wrong decision - but without wanting to criticize the club for it.

26 goals after 27 rounds speak for themselves.

We scored over 70 goals in the last national league season and almost every shot ended up in the net. This year we made a lot of changes on offense: Bovolenta was injured for a long time, Giacomuzzi left us and Schieder ended his career (before making a comeback, editor's note). We simply lacked a point of reference at the front - and the new players didn't make the impact we had hoped.

Your team has conceded 51 goals so far, which is the second-worst rate behind Fersina. Why these weaknesses in defense?

I am absolutely not satisfied, be it with the overall defensive performance or with my personal performance. My long-time partner in central defense, Georg Sinn, tore his cruciate ligament on the third matchday. That's why we had to change a few things here too. But we just made too many mistakes. If we made a mistake, it immediately rattled; if our opponents made mistakes, then it didn't. The top league strikers don't forgive mistakes, we just did it badly.

Finally, a quick word about you: Will you also wear the blue and white jersey in 2015/16?

There have been no discussions yet. Of course I would still like to play in the top league. But I feel very comfortable in St. Pauls, I only live two minutes from the training ground, so I think we will find an agreement.

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Fabian Mayr: “We never saw the sun this year”

St. Pauls is the first South Tyrolean relegated from the top league. SportNews met the captain of the traditional Überetsch club, Fabian Mayr, for an interview to analyze the “epidemic year” of 2014/15 with him.

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