Erling Haaland looks lost to remind Manchester City this will take time | Barney Ronay


Debuting superstar striker is upstaged by Darwin Núñez during defeat to Liverpool in the Community Shield

OK. This might take a while. Just talk among yourselves. For Erling Haaland this was a debut not just to forget, but to shred, incinerate and bury at the bottom of the garden. Haaland looked limb-weary by the end of this clammy high-summer Community Shield final, a curtain-raiser for a stage that has scarcely been cleared of tables and men in brown coats.

For much of the second half at the King Power Stadium, Haaland skulked and mooched in the centre circle. With seconds left he produced a wonderfully wholehearted miss, clumping his shot off the top of the bar with all the easy grace of a man toe-poking a crumpled beer can into a hedge.

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