I know what you mean, but while they're different facets of the game they do impact each other massively. Technical football becomes harder when the speed of the game is increased, everything from your first touch, distribution, dribbling is made significantly harder.
https://sciencenordic.com/denmark-f...sts-football-has-changed-dramatically/1440511
That's only from a comparison from the mid noughties, but it shows they way football has moved to in the PL.
Of course there will be plenty of players from bygone eras who played in similar roles, but it's less about individuals and more about evaluating the league as a whole. If you look back to the year you mentioned, the vast majority of sides in the country played with out and out wingers. Whereas in today's football most sides rely on their fullbacks to provide the width, as true wingers are much more of a rarity these days. Managers often opt for inside forwards and players who can play in the half spaces, and this has led to fullbacks becoming much more involved in the attacking side of the game as they've had to take on the responsibility of wingers.
Attacking fullbacks has always been a thing in football, and there was a resurgence of them when Roberto Carlos and Cafu became household names. There are plenty of individuals who functioned as important cogs of the attack, but if you look at the league as a whole it was far less common than it is today.
Gary Neville wrote a great piece last year explaining how the role has changed. It's well worth a read.
https://www.skysports.com/football/...neville-how-full-backs-have-evolved-over-time
It's hard to compare between eras as the style of football was so different. I don't necessarily disagree with the evaluations you've made here, but the demands are very different. Martial is very technically gifted, and Pogba is wonderfully talented when it comes to technique, this doesn't necessarily translate to winning things though. The argument you're making isn't really a fair one, it would be like me saying if technique was so great back then how come United kept winning with Nicky Butt in midfield? He was a fine player but doesn't match up to Pogba technically, but it would be incorrect of me to use this as an assertion to evaluate an entire league's standard of football.
Someone like Cantona could play in any era, but it's about how football has changed in the league rather than individuals. A world class player will be world class in any era.
It's not really about a generational thing, I've watched football from the 50s (the little we have) and more football from every decade onwards. Everything in football is recycled, I've spoken about how pressing has become such a ubiquitous part of the PL but we had Rinus Michels brilliant Dutch side employing a high octane press in 1974 with a high line, Arrigo Sacchi's Milan was heavily inspired by Michels, but applied their own pressing system involving zonal marking and greater compactness. These systems have heavily inspired modern football and we can see their essence in Guardiola's Barcelona and the sides that came afterwards, where he built his own style from the blueprints of his predecessors, using his 6 second rule to regain control of the ball and then relying on the compact shape to stop counters if unsuccessful. Klopp's spin was to instead of relying on the press as a strategy to stop counters, or regain control of the ball, was to use it as an offensive strategy in order to create chances during the transitional period before the opponents can regain shape.
Every era of football is different, and heavily recycled, with approaches that may have gone out of fashion being once again reintroduced, or a manager puts his own innovative spin on one of the classics. Every period has it's own strengths and unique style, so when I say the technical standard in the PL player for player is better now than it was in the 90s, it's not as a derogatory remark but an acknowledgement of how the game has changed.