The problem with this is that when KDB is not in the squad, Pep's scheme also becomes different because they will prioritize attacks carried out on both sides especially some players like Alvarez, Bernardo Silva and Foden they prefer to play dribbles rather than breakthroughs made and it was seen in the last few matches especially for their match against Brighton 2 goals they produced came from attacks that started from both sides.
Manchester City do have a lot of good players but for the problem of initiating the ball and the flow that is created from the midfield pass only KDB is able to do that so when he was injured then one pattern of Manchester City's attack was lost.
It's very obvious that Kelvin Debruyne was the real pillar of City and it was his good accurate passes that gave Haaland most of his goals last season, the whole team seriously misses him cause he controls the midfield very well and has a good vision to deliver good passes that lead to goal from a distance or close range, if you noticed his goal score rate is poor compared to last season even though he's still the highest goal scorer currently, all this ill luck he's having is due the absence of Kelvin Debruyne cause nobody currently give those good passes to Haaland like KDB does.
Manchester City are currently 2nd in the league table after suffering several defeats against Wolves and Arsenal,Pep has come up with a strategy for his team to perform well even with absence of KDB,they'll be playing against young boys away from home in the UCL match tomorrow, it would be easy for them to beat Youngl boys and i believe Pep might rotate his team cause after that is a derby match at Old Trafford against Manchester United.
But in this case the Manchester City midfielders are also bad because they are still playing very well, it's just that when KDB is not there, they indirectly only apply one attack option where they prioritize the speed of the players to damage the opponent's defense but when there is KDB they have several options where KDB can organize attacks with speed and passes which will certainly be more profitable.
This should be one of the references for Pep that they should look for one of the players in the center who has at least similar abilities to KDB to anticipate something like this.
But when it comes to performance and for the continuation of the season I still won't be too worried even though they are currently in second place but I am quite sure that Manchester City are the strongest candidates for the title again.