Huddersfield Town landed a surprise from Danny Schofield signing | OneFootball

Danny Schofield's time in charge of Huddersfield Town was a disaster, but the signing of defender Michal Helik was one of his best decisions.

Huddersfield Town will be looking to make a swift return to the Championship after suffering relegation from the division last season.

It seemed as though Huddersfield were a club heading in the right direction after reaching the Championship play-off final in the 2021-22 season, but they were beaten by Nottingham Forest at Wembley, and the resignation of head coach Carlos Corberan that summer marked the start of a dramatic decline for the club.

After the sackings of Danny Schofield and Mark Fotheringham, Neil Warnock narrowly kept the Terriers in the second tier in the 2022-23 campaign after inspiring a remarkable turnaround after his arrival, but unfortunately, the club could not build on their survival.

Despite making a decent start to last season, Warnock surprisingly left the John Smith's Stadium in September after the club expressed their desire to make a longer-term appointment, but the decision to bring in Darren Moore backfired spectacularly, and he was sacked in January after winning just three of his 23 games in charge.

Experienced German coach Andre Breitenreiter was named as Moore's replacement, but he was unable to prevent Town's relegation to League One after picking up just two victories from his 13 games at the helm.

There is no doubt that it was a disastrous season for the Terriers, with managerial instability contributing to their demise, but one player that made an unexpectedly positive contribution last term was defender Michal Helik.

Michal Helik signing was Danny Schofield's best Huddersfield Town decision

It is fair to say that Huddersfield supporters will be keen to forget Schofield's tenure, with the 44-year-old winning just one of his nine games in charge after replacing Corberan in the summer of 2022, drawing one and losing seven, before being sacked in September.

Schofield oversaw the arrival of some underwhelming signings, such as Will Boyle, Connor Mahoney and Tyreece Simpson, but he was also responsible for the recruitment of some successful additions, including David Kasumu, Jack Rudoni, and in particular, Helik.

Helik made the move to the John Smith's Stadium from Yorkshire rivals Barnsley, where he had spent the previous two seasons, scoring seven goals and providing three assists in 89 appearances for the Tykes.

The 29-year-old may have suffered relegation in his final season at Oakwell, but he proved himself to be a more than capable defender at Championship level, and he played an important role in Huddersfield's survival in the 2022-23 campaign, with Warnock claiming that his centre-back partnership with Tom Lees was "as good as anything in the league".

As well as being an incredibly solid defender, Helik was also a physical presence in both boxes for the Terriers, but few could have predicted the impact he would make in the goalscoring department last season.

While it was not ultimately enough to prevent Town's relegation, Helik chipped in with a total of nine goals in 42 appearances last season, and remarkably, he finished as the club's top scorer, ahead of the likes of Delano Burgzorg, Josh Koroma, Sorba Thomas and Danny Ward.

Helik's contribution was one of few positives in a dismal season for Huddersfield, but the lack of goals from the forward areas was one of the main reasons for their relegation, with the West Yorkshire outfit finding the back of the net just 48 times in the Championship during the entire campaign, and the Poland international was responsible for almost 20% of that total.

Huddersfield Town will find it tough to replace Michal Helik

Huddersfield managed to keep hold of Helik in the summer following relegation, and unsurprisingly, he played a key role for them in League One in the first half of the season.

Helik spent over a month on the sidelines after picking up a hamstring injury in September, but his return to the team coincided with a significant upturn in form for Michael Duff's side, and with the defender wearing the captain's armband, the Terriers started to close in on the automatic promotion places.

Town kept nine clean sheets in the 21 games Helik featured in this season, and appropriately, one of his last acts for the club was to rescue a crucial point with a late goal in the 1-1 draw against Burton Albion in December in what proved to be his penultimate appearance.

Huddersfield made an agreement with Helik in the summer that should they receive a suitable offer from a club in a higher division, they would allow him to depart, and he got his deserved move back to the Championship when he joined Oxford United in January.

After his exit was confirmed, Duff said that Helik had been a "credit to the team in his time at the club", but he insisted that "we are confident that we have the depth in that position within the squad already to continue progressing in the same way".

However, the early signs are that Helik may be an even bigger loss for the Terriers than many had feared, and it will be incredibly difficult for them to find a replacement who is as defensively solid and as much of a threat from set pieces.