Sane’s progress a breath of fresh air for Pep and country
PEP Guardiola had spent much of the opening weeks of the season bemoaning how difficult it was to leave City stars on the bench, so his comments about Leroy Sane came out of the blue.
The German had followed up a match-winning performance at West Brom in the League Cup with another crucial goal against Crystal Palace when City’s coach declared that he had ‘not deserved to play’ earlier in the campaign.
“He didn’t arrive good. He didn’t make a good pre-season, he was not good in those games and he didn’t deserve to play.”
If Sane was a bit-part player for the first few games, he now looks immovable from the first team. A string of four excellent displays ensured Guardiola went into the international break purring about his forward’s role in defeating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
The secret to the 21-year-old getting back in his coach’s good books? Not worrying about it in the first place.
“I am just quite laid-back,” he said.
“I don’t think about it too much, I’m not the type of person to berate myself or constantly ponder about why it’s not going well for me at the time.
“I take care in those situations to do the simple things properly and to concentrate on my game. You need to take care the pressure doesn’t become too great when you’re a young player.”
Guardiola has spoken about Sane getting better at doing simple things, and wants full concentration and focus for the whole game to avoid silly mistakes.
One simple improvement from the summer that can aid everything in Sane’s game has been his nose job.
Despite finishing last season strongly with the Blues, the former Schalke star revealed he had been struggling for most of the year with breathing problems.
With the World Cup in mind, he opted to miss the Confederations Cup – which Germany went on to win – in order to have surgery to rid himself of the issue.
However, much as it may have hurt his international prospects, Sane does not regret having it done.
“I had quite a few breathing problems for the year up to the tournament. [The operation] had to be done in England under a general anaesthetic.
“I feel a lot better breathing now and can recover a lot more quickly after a sprint.
“The quality within the national team is huge and many people are fighting for the same position.
“Lots of players also proved their worth during the Confederations Cup in the summer. That’s quite a positive thing for me.
“Every player has to be motivated to prove themselves even more during the games. You have to use the game-time that you get.”