Fritz confident Bremen can turn things around

The 2003-04 champions have made a terrible start to the season with just two wins in 12 games, a run that has left them in the bottom two and only a point ahead of bottom club Stuttgart.

New head coach Viktor Skripnik appeared to have turned their fortunes around with three wins out of three since replacing Robin Dutt last month, but Sunday's 2-0 defeat to fierce rivals Hamburg ended their resurgence. 

Two goals in the final six minutes were decisive at the Imtech Arena, but Fritz is not pressing the panic button just yet and believes Bremen have the quality to pull away from the foot of the table. 

"The situation is very threatening," he told Bild. "We can all read the table and know what it's about. 

"We got us into this and we can pull us out again. I am optimistic that we will do so.

"It would be good if we would win the home games before the winter break, then we can concentrate on the second half [of the season] to prepare."

Bremen have five matches before the mid-season break, including a clash with fellow strugglers Borussia Dortmund.