Maybe Pep thinks there are still midfielders who can help the defense, this is characteristic of Manchester City which is team with superior attack quality in every match, but you are right that now everything has changed and Manchester City is not the squad it used to be.
It just that at least they got some impressive win, after this break we can see how the changes are, Pep will not stay silent after series of bad responses to him and Manchester City because Pep must have prepared some plans to overcome this situation.
The bad situation that Manchester City has experienced should not be maintained so Pep should have prepared his unique plan to revive the slumping team after this break. Because Manchester City must at least be able to reach the top four positions for this season in order to return to the UCL next season with a new spirit, but if in the second half of this season Manchester City does not get more changes in every line, of course it will be very difficult to be in the top four zone because several other teams are still quite strong and will also make better changes.
let's see what happens later but the Man city match against West Ham that has happened which was won by Man city shows that Man city has made progress in terms of its performance and of course Pep Guardiola is a professional coach so he will definitely prepare everything so that Man city can rise.
now let's see what happens later and indeed Man city should be able to achieve a good ranking so that they can get tickets to UCL again but considering the current competition there are many good and surprising clubs then it definitely takes extra work to be able to get tickets to UCL. but yes indeed if for example Man city in the upcoming match always does not win when competing then it will definitely be difficult to get tickets to UCL and become champions again. now let's see what happens later but I saw Erling Haaland in his last match showed his classy game and the other city players have also appeared confident I am sure positive changes will occur for Man city.