Form vs Self-Belief

In Form.

The whole concept of being in or out of form is an interesting one. It’s a commonly used phrase in sport and suggests someone or a team is on a good or bad run.

The problem with form is that when there has been a series of poor performances or defeats then we can create a concept in our mind of being in a slump and our confidence and self-belief can dip. The more importance we apply to this ‘slump’ then the more difficult it is to get out of it.

Yet, in some ways, form makes no sense. Why should we place more importance to what happened in the last game than ten matches ago or a hundred matches ago? They are all in the past and they only affect the present and the future if we believe they do.

The majority of footballers, though, take the previous game into the next one. That never creates a consistency that most managers and coaches are looking for.

Strikers are a good example of this. If they have a bad run in front of goal when they’ve been missing chances and not scoring then most will lose confidence. The manager, fans and other players might be talking about it and they start to become tense, doubt themselves and over-think. Some might even start to find ways of avoiding having the chance to score because they fear missing. They pass when they could have shot. They ‘hide’ on the pitch.

The best strikers, though, don’t do that. They maintain confidence and self-belief regardless of what’s perceived as their current ‘form’. I played with two, Alan Shearer and Billy Sharp, whose mindset was their biggest asset. Their appetite to score goals was insatiable. It was what they lived for.

Shearer spoke about how every time he went on the pitch he expected to score. Sharp is the same. And when you play with that kind of confidence and self-belief and trust yourself, then you play instinctively and the goals just happen. Sometimes they said they didn’t know how they scored, but they kept on doing it.