Erling Haaland will admit himself that he is not the typical Pep Guardiola player in a way that, say, Julian Alvarez appears to be. Where the Manchester City manager is associated with false nines and diminutive dynamos dancing their way around a pitch, Haaland has come to resemble a wrecking ball of a footballer that smashes in goals from any situation.
That has led to the debate around how Guardiola and his new No.9 can get the best out of each other - much of it relevant - and who will have to adapt to who. It also caused their differences to be highlighted after Haaland missed a sitter in the Community Shield defeat to Liverpool, with the stats working to fit the narrative that he had looked like a fish out of water; completed passes and touches were used to show the gap between what Haaland is and what he needs to be.
Except, while the Norwegian wants to learn more of the centre-forward play that Guardiola demands he is also keen to showcase the qualities that earned him his £51m this summer at the age of just 21. And having beaten European heavyweights to sign him, City know better than to misuse the No.9; there is no point, as Zlatan Ibrahimovic famously said after falling out with the manager at Barcelona, to drive a Ferrari like a Fiat.
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Lo and behold, Haaland's touches were again low against West Ham - the lowest of the starting XI with 32 (Ederson had 46) . The touches that he did have, however, were enough to give Guardiola control of the game in a way that few forwards could have done.
Haaland only needed one tough against Liverpool to have a critical role in City's goal last week, and three touches at the London Stadium brought two goals. One knocked the ball beyond Alphonse Areola to draw the foul that he converted with his second, and one more was all that was necessary to score the second.
City's first came when they were on top, dominating possession but to that point unable to find a way through. More significantly, the second came when West Ham had just started to come back into the game.
David Moyes had made a double change, Said Benrahma had forced Ederson into a save and the home crowd were beginning to be interested again - then, quick as a flash, Kevin De Bruyne knocked the ball forward and the match was over. A hat-trick would not come, but there were four subs that followed.
A perfect Guardiola match would involve 100 per cent possession for his team as they kept the ball all match so that their opponents could not get near them: total control, in other words. Haaland may not fit the typical mould of a Guardiola player yet his goals brought, and bring, a level of scoreboard control that enables City's possession game.
The Norwegian brings more completeness than almost any player in the game too. He showed in the Community Shield that he won't put every chance away but he will score the second goal he scored at West Ham probably nine out of ten times, whereas that same chance with Raheem Sterling or Gabriel Jesus probably would have only been five out of ten.
Such confidence and clinical ability brings the control that Guardiola craves. West Ham had 38 per cent possession between half-time and the second Haaland goal, and had outshot City by three two two; between the second goal and that final whistle, they had just 18 per cent possession and mustered zero shots to City's six.
City lost to Real Madrid in the Champions League last season because they did not score enough goals, and in their league match against Liverpool the manager lamented how the missed chances meant that they failed to 'kill' their title rivals. Haaland has been brought here to change that and has already shown how he can.
In that respect, he is a perfect player for the Guardiola system.
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