The team had just won the league the previous season but it was pretty much accepted that we didn't play that well compared to our previous levels, and were largely carried by RVP's goals. Giggs himself talked about the problems that season under Moyes and he said that the two main issues were inexperience of Moyes at that level, but also an ageing squad. Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Giggs, Carrick, Rooney, Van Persie, Fletcher, Young and Valencia approaching the twilight years. These were the spine of the team that 'knew how to win'. They were all clearly getting to or past their best . Vidic and Rio were practically finished at that stage and Evra was struggling with the pace of the league by then. I remember people even saying at the time, perhaps tongue in cheek, that Fergie knew what he was doing when he left as he wasn't getting another season out of that squad.
But I think Giggs, at that stage, didn't even realise that the issues actually went deeper than this and the whole structure of the club and the antiquated way in which we operated (which was practically held together by Fergie and Gill) was a big part of the reason it fell apart so drastically. I don't know, maybe I am doing some of these players a disservice but at the time it felt like all of the players above were past their best and/or struggling with fitness and injuries, and, apart from maybe Evra at Juve, none ever really competed at the top level again.
