Soft or Smarter? Mentality & Toughness Then vs. Now

Veteran players and coaches often criticise modern footballers for lacking mental toughness compared to previous generations. However, determining whether today’s players are genuinely less resilient requires examining how the game’s demands and pressures have evolved.

Changing Times, Changing Minds

Football continues to change. Studs shifted from steel to carbon fibre, while match balls now repel rain rather than soak it up. 

In February 2025, Erik ten Hag warned his players that some of them “react to feedback like it’s a VAR injustice.” That comment tapped into worries about resilience and toughness. The question is less “soft or hard?” and more “how has the mindset evolved?”

Social Media, Pressure, and the Rise of Sensitivity

Back in 1995, an error faded with the evening paper; now, social media coverage grants every slip viral immortality.

Constant Noise, Bigger Stakes

Before we dig deeper into the details, remember that each second on the pitch doubles as a live audition for the internet.

• Sponsor math: Brand managers read sentiment graphs like stock charts. A single mistake can slice six figures off appearance fees.
• Digital shop window: Agents push highlight clips to sustain a narrative of growth and protect transfer value.

Football players with no social media

A handful still opt out of the scroll.

1. N’Golo Kanté – only posts occasionally, sometimes months apart, and prefers community work to hashtags.
2. Thiago Silva – scaled back Twitter use after racist abuse in 2023 and now limits posts to match‑day updates.
3. Arnaut Danjuma – dialled down Instagram activity in 2022 to focus on training.

Why It Matters

Continual attention starts to wear on emotional stability. Sports psychologists working with Premier League clubs note that players often scroll through social feeds on the team bus, replaying mistakes long before analysts press play.

Then vs Now: Comparing Generational Toughness

Every era demands a different brand of bravery. Mud‑bath pitches of the ’90s punished ankles; today’s fixture lists punish mind and muscle alike.

Before stacking generations against each other, keep two things in mind:

• 1990‑91 season: Average weekly wage was roughly £1,500. Post‑match recovery was often a lukewarm bath. Feedback filtered through broadsheets.
• 2024‑25 season: Median wage about £120,000. Cryotherapy, nutritionists, and wellness apps are routine. Every pass is live‑blogged.

Key Shifts in Mentality

Let’s find out the biggest contrasts.

• Discipline and resolve: Dressing‑room “courts” once kept wayward pros in check. Today, clubs run development sessions on mindset and coaching psychology. In countless football mentality quotes, former captains insist that discipline starts long before kick‑off.
• Football player injuries: Better scans flag knocks earlier. Injury‑tracking studies indicate that modern Premier League players now miss roughly six to eight matches per season. It’s a rise linked to more cautious medical protocols compared with the mid‑1990s. Call it caution or adaptation, but the numbers reflect medical vigilance.
• Expectation vs sacrifice: Roy Keane famously limped through fixtures to keep his shirt; clubs now pull stars early to protect long‑term performance and business values. It’s proof that safeguarding bodies today may extend a player’s legacy tomorrow.

Erik ten Hag: Critique of Modern Mentality

Ten Hag’s blast on 26 February 2025 wasn’t the first, and won’t be the last.

Before listing more gaffers, note that each verdict filters through personal culture and era.

• José Mourinho (2021): Claimed certain players “cry on Instagram before speaking to coaches,” hinting at fragile maturity.
• Antonio Conte (2022): Urged Spurs to find more character and less comfort, equating grit with trophies.
• Marcelo Bielsa (2020): Warned that endless data risks weaken football’s instinctive tradition.

The Role of Mental Health Awareness in Today’s Game

In every Premier League training base, you’ll spot more than cones. Quiet rooms, breathing coaches, and even scented lamps now feature in daily schedules.

Before we outline specifics, remember that admitting stress in 1995 might have earned a shrug at best, ridicule at worst.

• Sports psychologists: More than half of Premier League clubs now retain at least one sports psychologist on a permanent or consultancy basis (Premier League Wellbeing Survey, 2024).
• Wellness spaces: Clubs such as Chelsea and Arsenal have carved out quiet rooms at their training grounds for breathing exercises and meditation.
• Sleep tracking: Teams like Liverpool and Manchester City use wearable tech to monitor sleep patterns and tweak training loads accordingly.

Treating the mind like any muscle signals growth, not weakness.

Is Softer Always Worse? Rethinking the Narrative

Labels stick easily. Let’s peel back “soft” and examine what modern players actually do.

• Physical output: Opta data shows the average distance covered per Premier League match now regularly tops 11 km, up from about 10 km in the late 2000s. That uptick underlines intense pressure and athletic development.
• Openness about feelings: Bukayo Saka chats about therapy on podcasts to normalise introspection and maintain elite form. Transparency may look tender, yet it often strengthens resolve.
• Broader commitments: Today’s calendar is a congested mix of TV rights, community appearances, and cross‑continental flights. Handling that load requires tough scheduling and tougher mindsets.

Looking across modern football history, it becomes clear that mentality keeps evolving.  From playing through pain in the 1990s to mastering media pressure and mindfulness today, the aim remains the same: perform when it matters.

What some call “softness” can look like smarter self‑preservation.