Don't think there were many cylinders missing when they came to the Etihad, well before December.
I think it is going to take some months for Pep to get the squad drilled to what he may see as an acceptable level. I would hope that we continue to develop throughout his tenure but the longer it goes on, the more it should be little refinements...
However, we know what sort of football the players we have can deliver when they put their minds to it / are confident. Quite a bit of what Pep does may just be a refinement of what we saw from Pellegrini. What we may witness is a more obviously varied tactical approach to opponents and, I hope, more disciplined and organised movement of the team as a unit. Pep does not have to make radical changes to leverage more out of what he has at his disposal.
This will be a transitional season but that does not mean the manger cannot manage for results alongside coaching improvement.
I think it will be very much a work in progress over the next 12 months, but when we look at last season and then contrast that to what we will see immediately with Pep i hope it will be a stark contrast. It doesn't look like we are going for a huge overhaul of players so not like we have 7 or 8 new players that need gelling together. I'm very hopeful we can start strong this season with the Pep effect getting the players working hard and playing as a team, then his ideas and tactics really developing over the season into how we play.