Heidenheim Vs Werder Bremen 2025/2026

While most of the attention in the Bundesliga fell onto Der Klassiker“ between FC Bayern and Borussia Dortmund this Saturday, a couple of exciting other games were taking place earlier.

One of those games happened in Heidenheim, where the home team 1. FC Heidenheim faced off against Werder Bremen in the Voith Arena.

The season for Heidenheim started rather badly, with only three points out of the first six games, and the club found itself in last place in the Bundesliga coming into the matchday.

On the other hand, Werder Bremen also had a poor start to the season, but after winning against FC St. Pauli before the international break, Werder managed to climb up to seventh place in the table.

For Heidenheim, this game could decide the way their season unfolds from now on.

The team was in desperate need of a spark to ignite their season, and Frank Schmidt’s men looked like the worst Bundesliga side out there, with only one rather lucky win against FC Augsburg.

On the other hand, Horst Steffen and his team were searching for consistency in the young season.

Due to unfortunate circumstances, including a late transfer window and numerous injuries to their defenders, the teams form fluctuated throughout the first couple of games, and now it needs to settle into the season.

In the end, the 2-2 draw on Saturday did not significantly help either team, but the managers will have very different takeaways from the game.

In this tactical analysis and match report, we will examine how the game unfolded, what ideas Schmidt and Steffen brought into the game, and which team can be happier about their performance in the end.

FC Heidenheim Vs Werder Bremen Lineups & Formations

The home team made a significant change in their formation.

Instead of the 5-2-3 formation Frank Schmidt used to start the season, the longest-tenured manager in professional football decided to return to the 4-4-2 formation that had helped them get promoted to the Bundesliga a couple of years earlier.

In goal, Diant Ramaj got the start, with skipper Patrick Mainka and Tim Siersleben playing as the two centre-halves.

Omar Traoré started as the right-back, with Jonas Föhrenbach playing as the left-back on the other side.

In midfield, Niklas Dorsch and Jan Schöppner formed the double-pivot for Heidenheim, with Adrian Beck and Arijon Ibrahimovic playing on the wings.

Budu Zivzivadze and Mikkel Kaufmann played up front for Schmid, rounding out their new formation.

The formation remained the same for Horst Steffen, but he made some personnel changes.

Mio Backhaus came back into the starting lineup as the goalkeeper, replacing Arsenal loanee Karl Hein.

The back four consisted of captain Marco Friedl, who moved from the centre to the left side, Karim Coulibaly, Amos Pieper, and Yukinara Sugawara on the right side.

Jens Stage and Cameron Puertas played as a double pivot, with Patrice Covic playing as the attacking midfielder. Samuel Mbangula, on the left, and Marco Grüll, on the right, flanked them.

In attack, Romano Schmid started out as a false nine, playing as the lone striker in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

FC Heidenheim Man Orientation

We discussed formations in the last paragraph, but honestly, with Heidenheim, they really don’t matter all that much.

Frank Schmidt’s team is probably the team that cares the least about formations overall in the Bundesliga over the last couple of years, especially against the ball.

In the first half of the game, Heidenheim completely dominated Werder and should have gone up by multiple goals, but failed to capitalize on their opportunities and were stopped by a great performance from Backhaus in goal.

Upon examining how they did it, it was actually rather simple.

Since Steffen took over, Werder have always tried to play out from the back, so Schmidt knew that they had to press high up the field; their first line of press needed to be right at the edge of the box.

Werder always build out of a 4-2-3-1 structure in the first line.

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