Heading into this weekend’s clash with Derby County, Callum Styles has praised the impact of new Head Coach, Valérien Ismaël in his first few games at the helm.
Barnsley have picked up their first wins of the Sky Bet Championship campaign under the Frenchman and were on a nice run of form prior to Tuesday evening’s defeat at Cardiff City, and the Reds’ midfielder is looking forward to more hard work on the training ground during the international break.
“You’ve seen in the results,” began Styles, “we’ve had two wins out of three and two really good performances against QPR and Watford and the main things is the three points. So, to get six points out of nine is a really good start for him and the team.
“It’s hard because it’s game, recover, prepare and then one day for the next game, so it’s just a case of trying to get all the information in as quick as possible. There’s not much time, so we just want to win as many games as possible until the break and then we can work on stuff.”
Lining up for Derby on Saturday is Wayne Rooney, who has now come full circle during his time at Pride Park after making his debut for the club against Barnsley back in January.
The former England international is one of Styles’ heroes, who grew up watching him play for Manchester United as a youngster, and he is eagerly anticipating going toe-to-toe with the Rams’ number 32.
“He was one of my idols when I was growing up,” continued the 20-year-old. “I always liked him; he was one of the best in the world, if not the best, in his prime. He’s got massive amounts of quality and it’ll be good to play against him.
“It’s always good when you’re growing up to see an English player doing well for his club and country and I support United so he was always one of my idols.”
You can watch Callum’s press conference on iFollow Barnsley.
