Pep Guardiola does not do rebuilds. He does refinements. The distinction matters because what is happening at Manchester City this season is, by his own standards, something close to a reckoning.

The midfield has aged. The press has lost a half-yard. Rodri's injury exposed dependencies the staff had quietly suspected. None of this is catastrophe — City are still third, still in the cup, still expected to finish the season strongly. But the air of inevitability has gone.

Inside the building, the response has been instructive. Less rotation. More structured training. A re-emphasis on basics that had become assumed. It is, in its way, a Pep rebuild. Just not the kind anyone expected to need.