The former Arsenal striker thinks it is important for coaches to "let players play" instead of trying to make them rigidly stick to playing systems and styles of team play.

He told the Independent: "I’ve said it so many times, the game is so controlled by everything, by stats, by coaches. I mean, myself, I’m a coach. I say, ‘don’t do this, don’t do that’. The game is so scripted and schematised at times, that you kind of forget to let players play.

“[Take] one of the best, Jack Grealish. He won the treble playing a certain way. It wasn’t the same at Villa. Villa’s Grealish was dribbling past people, shooting sometimes.

"At Man City, he’s well aware that he can’t lose the ball too early or too quick, because they’re going to be in transition. Pep doesn’t like transition. He likes to possess the ball, retain it there.

“Meanwhile… if you don’t try, you don’t succeed.”

Thierry also mused on how a younger generation of fans are more interested in the accomplishents of individuals than their teams as a whole.

He said: “You know, it’s funny, whenever I’m in the street, people want to know who was the best, who is going to win the Ballon d’Or. And I’m like, hang on a minute, nobody comes into this game thinking about individuals. It’s a collective sport.

"And I think we moved on so much from ‘let’s talk about the game’. It’s always a battle or debate, who was the best… and I know it creates debates but there is a game here, 11 v 11, and if your team is not good, you will struggle!

"So yeah, you can see that new generation only want to talk about individuals...

“It’s different. I don’t know if it’s good or right. That’s how the world moved on. People talk more about players than the team at times.”