There does seem to be a different way to handle the current generation. Whether they are more sensitive or simply more willing to speak up when being criticised (which can be both negative and positive) I don't think it applies to all players.
For example we've seen plenty of times pep (sterling, kimmich) or klopp berating players on the pitch and going ballistic. If they do that publicly then best believe they are happy to do the same privately with their players. I just think as has always been the case, there are:
- players with talent and mental fortitude who you can criticise
- players with talent but lack mental fortitude
- players with little talent but mental fortitude
and the rest
I'm sure we can go back decades and see teams full of talents but their players didn't have the level of mental fortitude needed to be champions.
When you look at our team and imagine what players have shown a bit of fight in their career you'd say Ronaldo, Bruno, Mct, Bailly likes a fight, other than that we haven't really got fighters. Compare that to 08 (rooney, tevez, ronaldo, scholes, giggs, rio, vidic, brown, vds evra etc) who were all naturally fighters. Sometimes you just cant teach someone to be a fighter.