I have always felt this about Pep's team. He pays lot of money to buy specific "type" of players who may not be world beaters in their positions but fit Pep's system like a glove. Players who are nifty footballers, with quick feet, technically sound, with very good game sense and intelligence. Only these players stand-out in Pep's team. The pinnacle of it is Messi. The other players include, Xavi, KDB, David Silva, Busquets, Gundogan, Mahrez etc.. Pep's system is the perfect platform for these players and their 'specific' skill set.
These players need not necessarily be better in their individual roles as much as they suit Pep's system. Like Gerard Pique, Pedro, Valdes for example, average players who looked a world beater in Pep's system. It also the same reason why other players don't look as good as they should when playing for Pep. Sterling, Sane, Jesus, even Aguero to some extent are players who are good at playing the game directly. Take the man, beat the man and go to goal kinda players underperformed under Pep. Players with other skill sets like Ibra, R10, , etc., absolutely didnt fit well in Pep's system. Players like Aguero, Eto, Henry, had to sacrifice their brilliance to be a slave to Pep's successful system. Henry was a lesser player under Pep, Aguero was a lesser player under Pep. Same with players like Bernardo Silva, Yaya Toure, Kompany etc. These players are/were not operating at their max under Pep. They were not his "kinda" player.
Unfortunately for City the early signs show that Halaand doesn't fit into Pep's system as well. Swap Halaand into a direct team like Liverpool, he will be an absolute beast. But for City, he will always play 2nd fiddle to Pep's genius revolutionary system and will never show his full potential. It's good for City, but definitely not so good for Halaand and football in general I think because you will see more of Halaand doing sideways passes in front of goals. This is also I think the reason why City players are always underrated when it comes to end of year player gong's, because most of Pep's players never reach their potential best, instead its the system that truly beats the other 19 teams. The much hyped up Ruben Dias am most certain will not be as good in many other teams. Same can be said of some of the other City players like Ake, Stones etc. But these players will look world beaters in Pep's system.
If you play for City under Pep, you are set for more money and more titles and as silly as it may sound, we may never get to see the true potential of some of these players (Like Jesus now for Arsenal) because Pep's system will swallow you in the name of success! Poor Haaland! (or is it?)