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.
Man city is back, the beginning of the new year opened with a victory, good job Kevin de Bruyne et al, with this victory Man city recorded its own record, namely the last 18 meetings against Westham have never been defeated, 10 wins and 8 draws. From this victory it can be said that Man city needs 2-3 more matches to be said to be consistent. By looking at the current Man city squad and looking at the difference in points. I am sure Man city can enter the champions league zone at the end of the season.
For Man city at this time Realistically being able to enter the UCL zone is good, then improving the team for next season even though this season is without a trophy but this can be an evaluation material for next season to be even better. Because to compete with Liverpool at this time Man city seems impossible if you look at the distance of points between the two, Man city's current task is still very difficult because in the UCL league they are still not safe, they need full concentration to be able to qualify for the play off round.