We present a theoretical framework that allows one to make an explicit connection between the phenomenology of QCD, namely the properties of the gluon correlator and Wilson loops, and a particular relativistic model for the description of nuclear matter and neutron stars: the chiral confining model. Starting with the field correlator method, which explicitly and simultaneously incorporates confinement and chiral symmetry breaking, we describe how to obtain the response of the composite nucleon to the nuclear scalar field, as well as the relative role of confinement and chiral symmetry breaking in in-medium nucleon mass evolution, thereby generating the three-body forces needed for the saturation mechanism.