I don't understand this take. He more or less said they weren't ready, that they knew they had the fourth best squad and that they were lacking legs in midfield to play the way they wanted.
On Cristiano he was fairly clear that the pressure around him to play Crisriano was quite significant (Owners, Sir Alex and Cristiano himself) even when his legs couldn't cope, which made the dynamics (I assume in the dressing room) difficult. Only a few minutes later he said; "But honestly I had no trouble with Cristiano, we knew each other well - it probably would have worked out better both for him and me if he hadn't signed though. It wasn’t really until after I left things really went sour for him, there was a lot of respect between the two of us." Which is something Cristiano said in his ill-adviced interview as well.
As for Sancho, he said he came into the club with an ear infection, was in hospital for a while, struggled to find fitness and didn't really get going during the 4 months he was there. He was clear that Sancho was "the one" for everyone at the club, and that they knew he wouldn't be the kind of player to run in behind, but needed to be part of a more build up oriented system - which is what they wanted to move towards. He briefly mentioned earlier on that the squad had more players suited for counter-attacking football and that they needed someone like Rice - who he pushed for for that reason.
I think the most revealing thing he said really was how hard players these days take pundit criticism. That they shy away from difficult moments, because they are afraid of how they will be talked about, and that some of the players were devastated with "over-the-top" criticism (Pogba, Rashford and Sancho seem the obvious people here). He also mentioned that he didn't expect there to be so much mental health involved - and more or less told his pundits friends "You aren't aware of how big an impact your comments have on these lads".
At no point did I think he was throwing anyone under the buss, he was quick to defend individual players when brought up, defended Ed Woodward, the scouting team, Maguire, Cristiano - even dismissed Glazer interference and penny pinching as "just part of signing a contract and having a job with a remit".
I felt he was guarded, specifically trying to avoid saying too much and avoid pinning the blame on anyone.