The importance of confidence in football – and how to cultivate it

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Psychologists and players share their tips for staying self-assured – and explain why the trick could be in your left hand

By Ben Welch for The Blizzard

Kepa Arrizabalaga is on his knees, hands on hips, watching Southampton’s Che Adams wheel away to an empty corner of Stamford Bridge. Celebratory screams echo around a vacant stadium haunted by a global pandemic. There are no comforting looks from Kepa’s teammates, no shouts of encouragement, just an awkward air of inevitability. It had happened again. The world’s most expensive goalkeeper had cost his team yet another goal.

“That was a nightmare as far as the goalkeeper and the Chelsea defence were concerned,” observed the BT Sport commentator Ian Darke. This time the young Spaniard had let a poor backpass from Kurt Zouma slip under his leg, before comically sliding into the post as he tried to atone for his error. Adams retrieved the ball and smashed it into the roof of the net to level the scores.

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from Football | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/may/27/importance-of-confidence-in-football-how-cultivate-it

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