The home game against Union Berlin this Saturday (3:30 p.m.) is the first of 19 finals for 1. FC Heidenheim to stay in the Bundesliga. The FCH took ten measly points from 2024 into this year. They are ranked 16th in the table and even coach Frank Schmidt says that they have their “backs against the wall”. The new savior is called Budu Zivzivadze. FCH boss Holger Sanwald was able to free the Georgian national player from Karlsruher SC. He is supposed to fill Tim Kleindienst’s huge shoes – a Herculean task that several players have failed in six months.
Schmidt’s school English is enough for Zivzivadze
With Zivzivadze, the Heidenheimers have taken a path that they have not taken before. After two years in Germany, Zivzivadze understands the language rudimentarily, but you have to communicate in English. A novelty at the Brenz Club. When asked about communication with his new striker, Schmidt replied with a smile: “Communication takes place in English. My school English is enough to convey to him how we play and what I want to see from him,” said Schmidt.
There is no one Heidenheimer way
Another novelty on the Brenz is that it is not steeply uphill, as it has been in the past 20 years. Series of defeats, relegation battles and then the contrasting program in Europe – all of this is new in Heidenheim. The much-quoted “Heidenheimer Weg” is also not set in stone. “You shouldn’t assume that if something has been going well for five, ten or 14 years, it has to continue like that forever. It’s not always just one way that makes you happy. We definitely have to take detours in many areas. There have been some changes, there are currently some changes. It now depends on every single game,” explains Schmidt.
Zivzivadze will be in the starting lineup
Unlike usual before games, Schmidt gave insight into his personnel planning. The fact that Zivzivadze is in the first eleven is more than just an indication due to the Pieringer loss: “What else should we take into account now?” adds Schmidt rhetorically. In addition, you don’t sign a 30-year-old international player in order to gradually introduce him to the team. The Georgian must ignite immediately, that is the pious wish of those responsible for FCH. However, the FCH coach did not give a starting eleven guarantee for the second winter newcomer, Frans Krätzig. “It clearly increases the competitive situation,” says Schmidt. However, he is only on loan from Bayern Munich for six months after not playing in the first half of the season at VfB Stuttgart. With the aim of getting playing time in the Bundesliga, he should soon be one of the starting eleven candidates.
An unusually large number of players are missing
Frank Schmidt has to do without an unusually large number of players in this restart against the capital club. Marvin Pieringer is missing due to a yellow card suspension, Mathias Honsak is suffering from muscular problems and Denis Thomalla is out due to problems with his Achilles tendon. Julian Niehues has started training again and has taken part in some parts of the team training, but still needs a few weeks before he can put on the Heidenheim jersey for the first time after his cruciate ligament tear. It was a short break, and therefore also a short preparation, but the Heidenheimers made good use of the training in Algorfa, where they were for the seventh time in a row.
-Maloney is no longer interested in the FCH
You give up a player voluntarily. Lennard Maloney has clearly communicated that he would like to move in the winter. The FCH had already wanted to extend the contract, which expired in the summer, last year, but in vain. They met again in the training camp. The FCH has to accept the American national player’s request to change, even though it will probably offend those responsible, after all, he became a national player in Heidenheim. “I need players who focus on FCH and see their future here, especially in this situation,” says Schmidt openly about leaving Maloney out of the squad. He already did that in the last game of last year, at VfL Bochum.
The team is doing well in training
The short break was good, says Schmidt, as was the training afterwards. “The team went along without any complaints and with full enthusiasm,” said the coach, satisfied with his team’s status quo before the game against Union Berlin. Above all, he was happy that he could “finally train”. Training sessions have often fallen by the wayside in recent months due to participation in the Conference League, which is certainly one of the reasons why FCH slipped to 16th place in the table. Schmidt is definitely focused: “All the talking doesn’t bring any points, the important thing is the transfer to the tasks on the pitch,” says Schmidt and looks ahead: “It’s a good thing that we start with an English week, because there are nine Points to be awarded.” The Heidenheimers don’t want to get too involved with their opponents. “We focused on ourselves. That was the focus,” says Schmidt, who of course knows that with the new Berlin coach Steffen Baumgart everything won’t just continue as usual at Union. Nevertheless, it is wrong to worry about what might have changed at Union, after all, we have enough work sites of our own: “We have to get stability and energy into our game, we have been working on that. “That’s much more important than just being focused on the opponent,” Schmidt continued.
Show the environment
that you are ready for the relegation battle
Against Union, however, they want to show everyone around them that they are ready to “roll up the field from behind,” says Schmidt. Although they have their “backs against the wall”, they are ready for these 19 finals that are still to come for the FCH. Schmidt finally looked at it the other way around: “As FCH, we are in the Bundesliga for the second year and are fighting and playing to stay in the league. I don’t see anything bad about it right now. We have to accept this challenge because what is happening to us right now is completely normal.” This is of course how you can look at this situation – and this is how success may return to the brenz. And in the end, Schmidt wishes for one more thing: “Maybe afterwards we will be grateful for the new drawer that we have filled: to have experienced a real relegation battle and to have emerged successfully from it. Then in the end we would be one step further.”
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