Confidence And Catch-22

Forest’s festive goodwill has come far too early this season. Gifting goals to opponents does not sit well with the prime objective in a football match: to win. Such generosity will also lose you more than games; namely, loss of confidence at an individual and team level.

That makes Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Wolves a more significant result than it might at first appear. Reds’ fans don’t need reminding that Forest have been on an awful run of results – including four straight defeats of late – and needed to secure at least a point. Job done. By changing seven players and using a different formation, manager Cooper got the kind of response he needs from the team and supporters were appreciative of that. But is it enough to reignite self-belief in the club?

Confidence can be an elusive quality. At times, it can fuel success. At other times, when things aren’t going to plan, it can feel as if it’s evaporated. Sometimes in abundance, sometimes nowhere to be seen. Then it can feel like Catch-22. Coined by Joseph Heller from his novel of the same name, the phrase relates to a problematic or paradoxical situation for which the only solution is denied by a circumstance inherent in the problem.

Translated into football parlance, it means poor results erode confidence and yet a key to breaking the cycle of losses is through self-confidence. Quite a conundrum! Well done to Cooper for conjuring a performance to lift our collective spirits, for providing the means by which players can feel confidence run through the veins of the team again. (And it wouldn’t hurt to have that Neco Williams assisted, Harry Toffolo headed goal on a loop in the dressing room this week.)

All of this is not to say that self-confidence is somehow fickle, here today, gone tomorrow. In life at large, it starts at a young age. I would argue, for example, that it’s part of a teacher’s job to nurture self-confidence – as they frequently do – in students. By this, I don’t mean the kind of hubristic arrogance we associate with some individuals educated at public schools. Rather, it is to instil a feeling of being sure of yourself and your abilities in a realistic way. It’s not about feeling superior but capable. And capability is embedded over time.

The word confidence comes from Latin, meaning ‘to trust’ and that can be applied to yourself and those around you. There’s no doubt that Cooper has instilled a culture of trust and confidence at the club. The Forest faithful are only too aware of what he has done for the City Ground and for the city of Nottingham. He has instilled pride and passion. We applaud his achievements – literally – after each game, reminding us all that in a profession notorious for short-memories, many of us look to the longer game.

The question is how long can that be? We see managers fall by the wayside after alarmingly short spells in charge. The next fixture could be a defining moment for Forest. Come Friday, they’ll welcome Spurs to the City Ground, which hasn’t been too successful a fortress of late. As we make our way to the stadium, it’ll be with hope – as always – and some confidence, though tempered by thoughts of the Reds too readily donating those goal-gifts to the opposition. The crowd will be in full-voice to will them to win by, frankly, whatever means.

In centuries past, when Nottingham castle was a serious fortification perched atop the rock, attacks through the portcullis were met with buckets of boiling tar when things got desperate. We’re not quite at that stage yet but Forest must recover their fortress mentality. It will take metaphorical fire and fight. Sometimes, you have to claw your way back into the mindset of collective confidence. Attitude can upstage ability.

It’s likely Spurs will turn out in their gravy-to-sludge coloured away kit. Perhaps it was chosen in the belief the team could somehow blend in with the terraces and mount a surprise attack in the dark of an evening kick-off! Forest will need to strain every sinew to repel them (more or less what Shakespeare’s Henry V said when rallying his troops before the battle of Agincourt). We will be witness and willing participants in urging the Garibaldi Reds to surge towards victory. They are perfectly capable of escaping the clutches of Catch-22, of breaking the cycle that locks you into fate. I can recall Forest home wins against Tottenham: now, more than ever, they need another one.