Exactly, the talent of those players is always underestimated. Cahill Gravesen and Carsley were in top form and were physically dominating most midfields in the league as well as shielding the defence and providing goals. How many of our current midfield do that? Martyn was also far superior to Howard, the amount of one nil wins we got was due to a defence and keeper who knew how to hold out, haven't had that since.
Mentally, they were just a far far superior team to the current one even if the current one has loads more talent in the wide areas and upfront.