with the right conditions, players can make a jump in quality, especially at an early age. ödegaard, martinelli, saka, gabriel are all below 25, they found themselves in a system that fits them well, and they are playing pretty consistently. i watched them a few times last year, they seemed to have grown both as individuals and as a team. ödegaard looks especially great, and he's been a hyped talent without any end product for almost a decade now
similar thing happened with milan last year: leao looked like a talented but not very effective player before he became effective, tonali looked like a pirlo meets gattuso type of guy without any consistency and confidence before he finally managed to play 10 games without being shit once