New York Red Bulls head coach Mike Petke believes juggling coaching duties with man-management is more difficult these days than it was when he was starting out as a player.
Petke has cited the improvement of MLS as the main reason for increased salaries among the players but he says that what comes with that is a bigger battle to keep egos in check.
"The league has changed," Petke said. "There are more teams, more players, more personalities. And you also throw in all that social media stuff, the players are under a microscope and they're getting critiqued at all angles.
"It makes the players a little more touchy. They ask why they're not starting because it's all over Facebook, MLSsoccer.com and Twitter.
"It's blowing up. I call it the LeBron (James) Syndrome. He came out of high school and was given a huge contract before anyone knew if he could play in the league. You look around our league and there are some who'd rather that than to earn it, and when things don't fall their way, it's a touchy situation. It's just a different day and age."
