Can Budu Zivzivadze and Frans Krätzig emulate the excellence of Heidenheim’s departed Kleindienst-Beste duo?
Heidenheim have already made some big-name additions early into this January transfer window. The arrival of second division top scorer Budu Zivzivadze and Bayern Munich starlet Frans Krätzig brings back memories of the last dream duo of Tim Kleindienst and Jan-Niklas Beste.
bundesliga.com profiles the new arrivals to determine whether lightning has struck twice for Frank Schmidt…
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With 25 goals in the Bundesliga 2 and 12 more in the top-flight for Heidenheim, Tim Kleindienst's departure last summer left Frank Schmidt's team with a gaping hole in their attack. The now-Gladbach striker left big boots to fill, and Heidenheim have since been actively searching for their next man to lead the line. Their latest hope comes in the form of current Bundesliga 2 top scorer Budu Zivzivadze, who may well be the answer to the problems going forward.
But it’s not just Kleindienst’s goals Heidenheim have had to replace. The team also lost Jan-Niklas Beste, their main creative powerhouse, who contributed 12 assists during their promotion season and added 11 more in the Bundesliga. Filling the void left behind by their former playmaker has been just as crucial for Schmidt.
Enter Frans Krätzig, a versatile player who, like Beste, enjoys tearing up and down the left flank and has the correct profile to potentially replicate the role of their departed creative tour de force.
It's clear to see that Zivzivadze’s ruthlessness in front of goal and Krätzig’s ability to deliver from the wings is in keeping with the same blueprint that proved so successful for Heidenheim’s previous duo, but the similarities don’t stop there…
It’s no secret that Kleindienst is known for more than the many goals he gets. The Gladbach striker’s work rate is up there with the very best. His involvement in 421 duels is a league best, and the only player who can boast a higher figure across the top two leagues is none other than Zivzivadze, who has been involved in 447 (albeit in two more matches). Like Kleindienst, Zivzivadze is relentless in the press and sets the example for his team.
However, they aren’t quite as identical as it may first appear. Whilst Kleindienst exudes a little more dominance in aerial duels, Zivzivadze is more prolific in those on the ground. Last term, in what was his only season in the top flight at Heidenheim, Kleindienst scored 12 times; netting three goals with his head, six with his left foot, and three with his right.
Zivzivadze, on the other hand, is the current top scorer in the Bundesliga 2 with 12 goals. But, since joining Karlsruhe in January 2023, he has registered 25 goals in Bundesliga 2; scoring three with his head, nine with his left foot, and 13 with his right. Therefore, on average he is slightly less dominant in the air, but still just as assertive in the opposition penalty area. With 23 goals in his last 34 matches for Karlsruhe in Bundesliga 2, his record evokes that of Kleindienst for Heidenheim during their promotion season, in which he returned 25 goals in 32 matches.
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The minor differences between the two can simply be explained by their physical attributes. Zivzivadze stands at 6'2" - just a fraction smaller than Kleindienst, who stands at over 6'3". Nevertheless, the player profiles are similar, thus it comes as no surprise that Zivzivadze, for all his goal threat, plays in a likewise team-oriented manner, having also contributed three assists this term. Kleindienst himself has four assists this season and is the fourth top scorer in the Bundesliga.
Every goalscorer needs someone to set them up, and in that regard, Beste truly lived up to his name during his time at Heidenheim. In the promotion-winning season, his 12 assists were a league best, and last season, he was joint-second in the Bundesliga behind only Leverkusen’s Alejandro Grimaldo.
This season, there’s only one player in Schmidt’s team to have directly assisted more than one goal – and that’s striker Marvin Pieringer of all people, who was supposed to be the recipient of such assists. The arrival of Krätzig could now remedy this situation.
It remains unclear exactly how he will be utilised, given that “he can play as a left-back and a left-midfielder”, in the words of Heidenheim CEO Holgar Sanwald. But that was just like Beste. The winger played primarily as a left-back in his youth, also playing the position for the German national team.
But at Heidenheim, he was deployed further forward. Krätzig started out as an attacking midfielder, playing off the left and through the middle, and has only transitioned to a left-back in the recent years of his adult career.
In 11 competitive professional appearances at parent-club Bayern Munich and his last loan spell at Stuttgart, Krätzig has collected two assists and one goal in all competitions. In the second half of the 2023/24 season on loan at Austria Vienna, he also got himself a further three assists and a goal as a left winger.
These numbers, though not quite an equal to Beste’s, are promising, especially considering his somewhat limited playing time and the fact that he got these whilst being rarely deployed in offensive positions. One can only imagine how he could improve on these figures if Schmidt chooses to follow the Beste blueprint.
But again, Krätzig offers something a little different to Beste. The Bayern loanee was on the ball at Stuttgart more often on average than Beste, though he tended to prefer playing more measured, organised passes to putting crosses in.
The similarities are unmistakable but, of course, the players are not identical. Regardless of whether Krätzig now plays as a left-back or left-winger, it will take some time for the players to fully acclimatise to their new environment. Beste and Kleindienst didn’t immediately click but rather grew over an entire second division season to become the successful duo that lit up the Bundesliga.
But the two new additions to Heidenheim are already on the same wavelength when it comes to one thing. “Now I want to do my bit to ensure that we succeed in managing to stay in the league come the end of the season,” explained the Georgian on his transfer. Krätzig concurred: "Keeping this team in the league is of course the main goal.”
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It’s a big task for Schmidt to integrate the new players into his system so quickly and to return to the old virtues that made his side so successful in 2023/24. On top of that, there are further highlights in store for the new Heidenheim players, as, in mid-February, they will face FC Copenhagen in the UEFA Conference League.
Coincidentally, Krätzig made his Champions League debut for Bayern against the Danish side. Perhaps by then things will look completely different in the Bundesliga table for Heidenheim, and maybe another dream duo will be enchanting the Voith-Arena.
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