Manchester City's summer business under spotlight as Erling Haaland's eight touches spark debate

It is one of football’s dirty little quirks that Erling Haaland can go from the Premier League ’s lethal weapon to eight-touch flop within a matter of days.

To be more specific, it is one of football Twitter ’s dirty little quirks. The knee-jerk reactions that were once confined to whichever stadium the 90 minutes were being played in are now published for the world to hyper-scrutinise and debate in 240 characters of reflexive hot takes.

It would too simplistic – and incorrect – to conflate Haaland’s eight touches with a poor performance. The Norwegian provided Ilkay Gundogan with an assist. His mere presence on the pitch was that of a vortex, sucking Bournemouth ’s defence to him and opening spaces around him for his teammates to exploit. And, if we’re being picky, Haaland would have likely had a ninth touch, and more significantly a goal, if Phil Foden had done the proper thing and squared to his No. 9 instead of gunning for glory.

All of this, however factual it might be, is peripheral. That is the tax paid for being the Premier League’s marquee signing of the summer. Scrutiny to the max, wherever it can be mined.

Haaland’s signing represents another chapter in the ever-evolving story of the Manchester City dynasty. The squad will need to adjust to playing with an out-and-out No. 9. Haaland will need to adjust to playing with the squad. But six points from six with no goals conceded lays down a foundation to a season that suggests adjustments won’t need to be anywhere near as big as some have implied after an interesting summer transfer window.

The loss of key attacking players in Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus to rivals Chelsea and Arsenal respectively always carried the threat of schadenfreude,