Baseball players are smarter than football players. How often do you see a baseball team penalized for too many men on the field?
For me, good football is not about how many skills you show or how many players you beat. It's about making the right decision every time you have the ball.
The league is changing, and we don't have many back-to-the-basket players. We now have a game that requires skill and versatility. A lot of that is about being able to think. It makes all the difference in the world to have a player in there with a high basketball IQ who can make the right decision.
The thing with NBA teams, a lot of times they just want to get you back on the floor to play, so as a player you've got to be very, very smart.
I've got to give Larry Bird his due; he was a great player. He knew the game and he was smart.
You never know about team speed until you get out there. You don't know who is a slow learner. A kid may not be very bright or he may be real bright but he doesn't know football. You've got to find out all those nuances and how they learn.
I think I worked out in my head it's something like 75 training sessions before you've got them pretty well drilled. You're not going to get that in international football so you're relying on their intelligence and the ability of the players to slot in.
Anybody who has played with Mesut will tell you how intelligent he is as a player. His vision is probably the best I have ever seen and that is why it is so important to have the right striker ahead of him.
