Last season I slated him as much as anyone because his touch was awful and a lot of moves broke down when they reached him. Even then I thought his movement was pretty good and he always worked his socks off. It just goes to show how big a part of the game confidence is. He's no Iniesta but his touch and passing look sharper and he basically has the demeanour of a top flight footballer now whereas last season he looked like a beaten man.
I'm really glad for him because (and I know it's cliched) he does come across as a top bloke.
I remember Capello's Milan team 20 years ago. Amongst the stars like Savisevic, Boban and Dessailly, there was a guy called Danielle Massarro who would often come on as a sub. So many times he'd score game changing or winning goals. Naismith seems to have that happy talent
Huge. I used to dismiss it as new-age irrelevance but the needs for sports psychologists and so on is definitely there. All physical preparation can be carefully calibrated using state of the art equipment, the best possible dietary plans, the latest modern fitness and rehabilitation techniques, such big leaps forward that now more than ever you can see the importance of the mentality given that the mind is far harder to control. Often-times these things can't help becoming self-fulfilling prophecies both the good and the bad because of the impact of confidence.
Naismith last year comes on and his first thought is trying to avoid getting booed. He just wants a nice quiet game without any attention, because more often than not it's the wrong sort. So he holds back, doesn' get involved, doesn't call for the ball, doesn't take risks, doesn't make himself available. Already he's limiting his game, and all it takes is one poor touch, hearing those groans and probably a few eff offs, and he sees even his teammates looking away in dissapointment, and he's pretty much done for the day. The jittery nerves and self-conciousness will cloud his judgement next time he touches the ball, and he's already playing so within himself it's not easy to avoid another mistake.
Contrast that with coming on against Fulham yesterday. Within 2 minutes he's split the Fulham defence and won a corner, from which he goes and scores. After that, he's just a completely different player. He's everywhere left, right, centre playing one-twos with Deulofeu, winning flick-ons for Lukaku, playing that ace through ball to Baines, getting in the box, being adventurous. Everything just flows naturally. He believes in himself, and crucially he feels like the fans and his teammates do too. Yesterday, a confident Naismith was the difference between 0pts and 3.
(An even better example, just look at United. Confidence managed to raise their game exponentially, made them good enough to win the title, and a severe lack thereof [amongst other things of course] has seen them crash into mid-table)
