Playing games (official or friendlies) in the old version, your player is gaining progress no matter he's in rest. Only in training you have to set him in 2 or 3 bars to gain.
In the new version there is no need to set 2 or 3 bars anymore. It's medium by default.
Only in quick training there are levels.
In the old version also, you can see if your player is a fast trainer or not.