This year's Champions League has become quite competitive. Bayern Munich and Manchester City have very strong squads. And they are consistently playing well. In addition, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Real Sociedad Atlético Madrid and Inter Milan have performed very well. The four La Liga teams Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Sociedad have played well and will surely qualify for the knockout rounds. City, Munich and Madrid are considered to be the favorites for this year's title. However the road to qualifying for the Champions League final will not be easy for them.
But a lot of things can happen until these games for the knockout round finally begin. For teams like Real Madrid and Bayern Munich it is incredibly important that the key players stay healthy. It would really change a lot for one of those teams if for example Harry Kane gets injured or Bellingham gets injured. I think Manchester City, due to having so many midfielders with offensive potential, would be most able to have a plan in case Haaland is injured. For Bayern Munich it would be tough and for Real Madrid Bellingham is also irreplaceable.
You are right, Manchester City is dependent on Haaland, Munich is dependent on Kane's performance and Madrid is now dependent on Bellingham's performance. And if these players suffer injuries in the knockout round, it will become much more difficult for the teams to qualify for the quarter finals. Because almost every team in the knockout round will be strong. So it will be much more difficult to win without a full strength squad. However, if clubs are not too unlucky their key players will not suffer injuries. Because Kane, Bellingham and Haaland are all fit enough.
I can agree with you when you say Manchester City and Bayern Munich depends on their natural strikers to score goals but in between, they're useless without those players from the midfield and flanks creating and working chances out for them to score goals.
For Manchester City, they have Doku, Jack Grealish, Phil Foden, Bernado Silva and Rodri all contributing to make Erling Haaland a damn great player.
I can say same for Bayern Munich, Harry Kane couldn't have been able to score all those goals alone, Sane, Gnabry and all other innit that club play to his strength.
But I can't say same for Real Madrid. Did you see the games they played without Jude Bellingham? Real Madrid may work around a certain player but not Jude Bellingham ( Even if he is a fantastic player. )