I'm sorry but football is a team game and allowing individuals to just do as they please does not augment that.
DA does swear by coaching and probably wishes he'd had more of it to bring the best out of him.
As for players of the past... they would be slaughtered by their modern day counterparts. Drinking, smoking,
long-distance running (being the only 'training' they did) and a lack of ball skills overall would soon let them down.
Before you quote Stanley Mathews, Jimmy Greaves or George Best at me, these players never played alone. For every
Stan Mathews there were several cloggers, a number of hoofers and quite a few journeymen mediocre players who made
up teams "before coaching". Those are the players who would have benefitted most from coaching.
If you want to think of the uncoached, watch a bunch young kids having a kickabout and note how they all bunch around the ball
trying to get a kick without any thought of what comes next. Beautiful to watch if you're talking about starlings in the sky
but not on the football pitch.