Man City striker Erling Haaland shows true colours with box office answers in rare press conference

Just as if he was facing a Premier League defence, Erling Haaland took no prisoners when he made a rare press conference appearance on Wednesday.

Away from Manchester City, Haaland has been appointed Norway captain for this week's fixtures in the absence of Arsenal midfielder Martin Odegaard. He said he would simply 'be himself' when wearing the armband in a straight-to-the-point response that set the tone for a box-office half-hour in front of the cameras.

Haaland doesn't like press conferences. He has enough media commitments by virtue of being one of the world's best players. He has only faced the written media three times during his time at City, with one being his unveiling and the other coming over the summer in the relatively safe environments of pre-season.

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He has a similar aversion to press conferences for Norway. One last season and now one this term. But like an inviting cross into the box, he didn't waste the opportunity to make sure he made his point emphatically and with no more exertion than is needed to be most effective.

He assessed the room as he sat down and there was an early volley back at a journalist who asked if his appointment as temporary captain would see him stop for an interview after his games this week. "We’ll see if anyone wants to ask me any interesting questions."

And he hit back at previous suggestions he was not committed to international football. He said: "Some of you have tried to paint a picture that I don’t want to play for the National Team, but you can bury that now. You can see how much I like to play for the national team."

But when asked if he ever thought about the Norway goalscoring record, he just replied 'no'. That commitment to Norway won't change anything regarding his City career, and Pep Guardiola always tells his players to go and represent their countries, but it does mean he will be in line to play plenty of games during the season.

Haaland was spiky again when comparing City and Norway's contrasting successes: "Why we [Norway] don’t succeed? Good question. We have not succeeded since I was born. What can we do? Just work and try to succeed."

And his view on the increasing schedule was telling. In the summer, he simply said 'what do you think.' This week he expanded, saying: "It’s starting to become an awful lot of matches, I think it has been for some years. The Premier League started with a winter break four years ago, we won’t see anymore of that. There has been too many matches for several years, not just after the new Champions League format. It’s nothing new, but it’s becoming a lot."

Short of criticism of the authorities, but far from an endorsement. He also spoke of the energy he has after a summer off. 'It will be exciting to see how long break I will get next summer,' he joked.

Haaland parted with a dig at a former journalist-turned agent who has co-authored a book with excerpts from a players' WhatsApp group, a 'no comment' answer about meeting Cristiano Ronaldo on holiday, and a light-hearted insight into his daily diet.

"I don’t want to get into details," he said. "But I eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, probably as you do, but maybe I take some better decisions than you, especially at the weekends!"

And despite the guarded nature of his answers, Haaland offered an insight into the personal struggles he has experienced recently due to the death of a close family friend.

"It puts things into perspective. Things you think matter a lot, don't really mean much," he said. "It was a heavy and tough time, but... Circle of life."

Suddenly, football doesn't seem as important. And press conferences definitely don't.