MICHAL TARGETS DREAM DOUBLE!
DETERMINED Barnsley defender Michal Helik is confident of achieving an eye-catching double by the end of the season – Championship survival and World Cup qualification!
The Polish centre-back helped the Tykes to only a third league triumph this term when promotion hopefuls QPR were seen off 1-0 at Oakwell last weekend.
Helik and his bottom-of-the-table team-mates remained six points adrift of safety ahead of the weekend but only four teams had scored more than twice against the Yorkshire club in a league contest this season.
Poland, meanwhile, will travel to Moscow next month to play Russia in the play-off semi-finals when a win would leave Robert Lewandowski and co needing a victory over Sweden or the Czech Republic in the final at Helik’s home town of Chorzow.
“Those are my aims for this season,” the 26-year-old defender declared of his twin targets. “I believe in both so much and it’s not something that’s unrealistic.
“I am confident we can do both and
I will do my best every day to achieve these goals.”
On-loan Watford midfielder Domingos Quina, 22, scored the only goal against QPR and Helik believes the former Portugal under-21 international and fellow January 31 recruit Amine Bassi, a 24-year-old midfielder on loan from Metz, have raised both hope and calibre within the squad.
“They bring really good quality and raise the standard of the team,” he said. “As Quina proved, they can bring goals as well and scoring first in a league game for the first time since October was big for us.
“The result was a big boost. We have been waiting for that moment for a long time and were happy to get that result against a team like QPR who have been playing so well.
“But I hope it will not stop at that game because we need the points so much.
Nothing has changed in how we work or the sessions we do but, hopefully, the win will give us more confidence. We had been very close to getting results in the last few games when we scored equalisers, but they were disallowed and, whilst every game we were losing was so disappointing, we’ve always had that feeling we can compete with teams.” Addressing the team’s status as the EFL’s lowest marksmen does seem the key to Barnsley’s survival.
Twelve of their 20 league defeats have been by a single-goal margin and Helik has not netted himself this term after hitting the target six times during last season’s remarkable play-off campaign.
He argues there are reasons for that drop-off, but still aims to contribute in that respect between now and May.
Different
“Our game is different to last season,” he pointed out. “There are fewer set-pieces, crosses and long throw-ins, so it’s more difficult for me to score goals, but I still want to help the team in offence and I’ll be trying my best to do that.”
Helik, capped seven times by Poland since his debut last March, is also daring to dream that a first goal for his country might be just around the corner.
“We’re only focussed on the first game against Russia, but the final would be in my hometown stadium, which would be very special, especially if I could score a header!” he enthused.
“Russia are a very good team and we’re playing them away, which will make things a bit harder, but we have quality in our team that everyone knows and recognises.”
That quality does not come in a more recognisable form than that of the legendary Lewandowski and, on the prospect of pitting himself against the Bayern Munich icon in training, Helik said: “It makes me a better defender, for sure, because I have a lot of duels against him in training camps.
“I try to learn from every session against him and, whilst I don’t think I can make him a better player, I hope I can help him prepare for the games as well.”