Nottingham Forest face relegation rivals Tottenham Hotspur in a crunch clash in the capital on Sunday
Vitor Pereira expects to face a Tottenham Hotspur team full of confidence on Sunday, but he wants all the focus to be on what his Nottingham Forest players are capable of.
Just one point separates the teams ahead of this weekend's huge showdown in the capital (2.15pm kick-off). The Reds travel south with the aim of leapfrogging their rivals in the table and boosting their survival hopes.
Pereira is yet to register a win with Forest in the Premier League but has steered them to the quarter-finals of the Europa League. Spurs, meanwhile, seem to have sparked into life under new boss Igor Tudor in their last two games - drawing with Liverpool before beating Atletico Madrid at home in the Champions League on Wednesday.
"Yes, of course we watched them (in midweek). They are in a moment where they have confidence because they competed against Atletico Madrid, who are at a good level, and before that against Liverpool," Reds head coach Pereira said.
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"But it is not about Tottenham. This is not about Tottenham, it is about us and about what we want to be as a team.
"The mentality is to go there and compete for the three points, trying to win the game. This is the mentality I want to see - playing without fear, without fears of the stadium or Tottenham.
"We respect them a lot, but this (fear) is not my mentality or the mentality of my players. We go there to compete with them."
The Reds are in high spirits after their European comeback victory over Danish side FC Midtjylland on Thursday. Transferring that momentum to the domestic stage is now the aim.
"In football, things can change quickly. Mentality can change everything. Football is a lot about the mind. We work a lot on what happens on the pitch, tactics and the physical and technical side, but we forget football is about the shape of our mind," Pereira said.
"If we are confident, we can make fantastic things happen and play at a high level. If we are not confident, we don’t want the ball.
"At this moment, it is very important everyone feels the confidence to express themselves. What I watched on Thursday was players being themselves, which is what I asked of them.
“When we are defending, it is about team spirit, fighting for the ball and helping each other. But when we have the ball, it is about quality."
Few epitomise that sense of team spirit more than Ryan Yates. The midfielder led by example with a captain's performance in Denmark - scoring to make it 2-0 to the visitors on the night and almost winning it at the death in extra-time, only for VAR to intervene.
"He is pure, he is pure," said Pereira. "He has the character, the spirit, the fight to go until the last minutes.
"Sometimes, if I don’t tell him to stop, stop a bit, don’t go everywhere, he wants to go everywhere. Top player, top human being and we need to have these kinds of players in the team.
"That character is very important. During the game, every time he is pushing for the others, giving energy, fighting and showing that we can do it; that we have the quality, the power and the ambition to keep going. He is a fighter, and we need these players leading the team.
“When we win, what I like is to see the smiles on the faces. You go inside the dressing room and they have the smiles on their faces. To see the smiles on the faces of the supporters, listening to them singing, it is fantastic and it is the connection we need to be a family.”