Erling Haaland's 'selfish' revelation proves Man City critics wrong in an instant

There was a moment in Erling Haaland's Manchester City debut in Green Bay where he was presented with a decent opportunity to score, but opted to square the ball to Jack Grealish, with a block seeing the chance go begging.

It felt uncharacteristic for a player who has scored so many goals from exactly the position he declined to shoot: on the angle, about 10 yards out, having been played in on the shoulder of the defender. However, Haaland's latest interview as a City player has perhaps explained why he didn't shoot - and why he might not shoot in future.

It comes after weeks of questioning from fans and pundits outside of City, trying to convince themselves that Haaland won't continue his goal-a-game form from RB Salzburg and Borussia Dortmund. The main theory to support that hope has been that Haaland will need time to adapt to Pep Guardiola's patient build-up.

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In fairness, his quiet performance vs Liverpool in the Community Shield showed signs that it will take time for him to adapt to City, and vice versa. On a few occasions, through-balls were just cut out or slightly misjudged, and on others, Haaland was making a run and the opportunity to play him in was ignored.

Both he and Pep Guardiola have said that those kinds of things will take time, and as long as he is getting in the positions to receive the ball, or put away chances, then there is something to work with. As Guardiola said defiantly, he's going to 'deny all the opinions and score goals' when it does click for him.

However, the evidence of one game, where Haaland was nowhere near fully fit and making his English debut, has been taken as proof that he will suddenly be a flop for