After the international break, Manchester City may have to prepare to face Liverpool without some players like Stones and Ederson. I know there are some conversations forming around De Bruyne's return with Guardiola hinting that that might be soon. There are other players who can still perform better in Debruyne's absence, so I don’t see any reason for Guardiola to want to rush him. I think he underwent surgery on a recurring hamstring injury, and Pep has said there are no plans to rush de Bruyne back into his side. De Bruyne had been managing the long standing hamstring complaint during Manchester City’s run to the Treble last season and didn’t have a proper pre-season.
They have a big squad that can handle any kind of injuries. If he continues to nurse his injury till mid December, then I expect De Bruyne to return to the Manchester City fold in the New Year, so there are still a few months to figure out Guardiola's next steps.
Manchester City will face Liverpool in their 13th match this week. The storm of injuries is quite detrimental for Manchester City in the match against Liverpool because the team they are facing is not a weak team and of course Manchester City will need hard work to be able to beat Liverpool. I saw that Erling Haaland was also reported to be missing this match because he was injured and that was not good news for Manchester City. But looking at Manchester City game this season, of course they don't depend on any one player because the substitute players also showed quite good quality when given the opportunity to play by Pep Guardiola.
So, for the meetings in the last 5 matches between Manchester City vs Liverpool, where Manchester City bagged 2 wins and Liverpool won 3 wins. But in the Premier League match, I think Manchester City is superior enough to win the match against Liverpool. Pep will probably give some in-depth instructions for Alvarez to perform better and score goals in this match and also for Foden of course he is very sharp on the front lines when he has the ball.