I feel that when he first burst onto the scene he was this ultra explosive winger who would knock the ball 20 feet out and chase it and ut felt like he was constantly at 100mph
But the more i watch him play now he preserves his explosiveness more… he still is THAT FAST he only uses it when necessary. Far better at linkup play and off ball positioning to get into ideal positions and doesn’t try to take on his man as much as he once did in the past but instead just finds space with out the ball.
This is kind of what happens. The conventional wisdom is that highly gifted players in any sport, from football to basketball to baseball, burn out quickly once their talent dies. But when you study it, it’s almost always the case that the highly gifted players (a) retain some semblance of their gifts (absent injury), and (b) have a much longer time to learn and adapt as their gifts fade.
This is not always true, obviously. But it frequently is. Aging basketball stars turn into wily ball distributors. 30-something baseball stars stop hitting .330 and start cracking 30 home runs with 90 walks. Aging footballers may no longer press, but develop an innate understanding of their role that allows them to do it to the max (see, eg, Messi, who probably hasn’t covered more than a couple of km in a match in three years).