Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger says the pace of the Premier League means players must be sharper mentally.
Wenger says that with matches becoming quicker and quicker, players need to be more agile in their thinking than ever before.
“What is certainly a bigger request for modern players is to have a mental flexibility in decision-making," the manager told Arsenal Player.
"Why? Because a player has to adapt sometimes to different systems, but also because in the modern game, the solutions available for the players on the pitch disappear so quickly that you have to change your mind on the ball very quickly.
“You have to be flexible in your decision-making and not be stubborn. You have chosen a solution on the pitch, but that option disappears again very quickly. I would say 20 years ago the solution disappeared in one and a half seconds, today maybe it goes in 0.2 or 0.3 seconds.
“I am seeing now players who can't make it at the top level purely because they don't possess this flexibility in their mind. Basically, when a player has the ball, he has a number of green lights around him.
“These lights become red very quickly, so then I have to choose another green light, and if I don't do that quickly enough, that will turn red as well. That is certainly, when you have to adapt within a system, one of the biggest modern problems the players face."
Source: tribalfootball.com