Man City's Erling Haaland plan might have changed already after three weeks

From the moment Manchester City won the race to sign Erling Haaland, the inevitable questions followed over how he would fit into Pep Guardiola's well-drilled team, and how long it would take him to adapt.

Guardiola said from the start that Haaland would adapt to City, not the other way round, and that he would need time on the training pitch to learn the specifics of what that entailed. But that didn't buy him time with the doubters, who wrote him off after a subdued 90 minutes against Liverpool in the Community Shield – even though he'd scored after just 12 minutes in the friendly with Bayern Munich.

Lots of words will have been taken back when Haaland dismantled West Ham on his own, helped by a brilliant tactical display from his 10 teammates, and the reaction from the squad to his debut shows there is a clear buy-in when it comes to Haaland's integration at City. Everyone is invested in getting the best out of Haaland as soon as possible.

ALSO READ: Guardiola might have hinted at a new first-choice Man City player after hidden West Ham role

Haaland said himself in his first press conference that he can improve every aspect of his game, and that Guardiola is a manager who can help him do that. Guardiola nodded back to that comment after the West Ham game, saying the club are committed to helping him with those improvements as he gets more in tune with how City play and how he fits into that.

In the mixed zone, Kevin De Bruyne urged patience for building those relationships on the training pitch, and on matchdays, while Ruben Dias said after the game that City's understanding of Haaland will continue with each passing game. "Despite all the individualities we have in the squad," he said, "this team only works if we