WHO’S THE DADDY?
Sane’s scoring return after birth of his daughter shows power of Pep management
BELIEVE it or not, Pep Guardiola doesn’t always get things his own way. It’s just that he doesn’t make a fuss like Jose Mourinho across Manchester.
When United outbid City for Alexis Sanchez in January, Guardiola shrugged his shoulders and moved on. When young player Leroy Sane tested his patience earlier this season, Guardiola delivered a short, sharp lesson rather than issuing a drawn- out public humiliation like those dished out at Old Trafford to Marcus Rashford, Luke Shaw and Anthony Martial.
Yesterday, Guardiola got his reward. Sane, dropped from City’s last game for lacking focus in training and then criticised by German team- mate Toni Kroos for poor body language, was welcomed back into the fold as a new father and took only 98 seconds to score.
It set up a comfortable victory for City to maintain their 100 per cent home record this season and stay within two points of leaders Chelsea and Liverpool.
Guardiola hasn’t lost a match in September since 2010 and his thoughts afterwards were to offer an olive branch to 22-year-old Sane, last season’s PFA Young Player of the Year but a strangely out-ofsorts character this campaign.
Guardiola said: ‘ Even in this period, we’ve never doubted the quality of Leroy Sane. He showed us so many times last season. But we cannot forget that young players have ups and downs. He is still only 22 and these things happen.
‘He has to realise himself what he needs to do as a professional and what he wants to do. I am delighted with his performance and big compliments to him.’
Sane, who resembles a rock ‘n’ roll star with his pile of dark hair and cutting-edge wardrobe, left the last international camp to attend the birth of his first child last week, a girl called Rio Stella.
He said: ‘It’s been a fantastic week for me, I became a daddy! We also played a good game today and we won.
‘I’m relaxed at the moment, I train hard and when the manager gives me an opportunity I show him what I can do. The next game on Wednesday against Lyon in the Champions League is really important.’
Sane described the noise around his early- season difficulties as rumours.
City’s victory was virtually assured inside two minutes, thanks to a gift from Fulham.
When goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli played a short pass out of his penalty area, City pounced with the high press.
Jean Michael Seri was pressurised into playing a ball to Dennis Odoi midway inside his own half, Fernandinho intercepted and charged towards the penalty area before delivering a low cross that isolated Bettinelli in no-man’s land. This allowed Sane to convert a simple tap-in.
City went through the gears for the rest of the half, with Fulham’s boss Slavisa Jokanovic admitting: ‘It was a fair result. They are one of the best attacking teams in Europe with those weapons.’
Raheem Sterling raced through and hit the crossbar when his finish deflected off the inside of Bettinelli’s leg and ricocheted upwards.
It only delayed the inevitable. Sterling fed Bernardo Silva after 21 minutes, who squared to Sergio Aguero.
When the Argentine’s shot was blocked by Odoi, the ball reared up onto David Silva’s chest before he tucked it home off the underside of the bar.
As Silva celebrated to mark his 350th City appearance, Fulham’s 18-year-old left back Ryan Sessegnon was left to rue how tough the Premier League can be, after being caught out of position.
To Fulham’s credit, Andre Schurrle twice forced Ederson into saves shortly before the interval.
But their good work was undone quickly after the restart when Sergio Aguero skinned Alfie Mawson down the right and crossed low for Sterling to slide home from close range. At 3-0, City took their foot off the gas with Wednesday’s tie in mind. Guardiola didn’t seem best pleased by that, complaining; ‘When you choose control over scoring more goals, often you lose control.’ But Fulham rarely looked like getting back into the game and Guardiola took off Aguero, who had an ankle knock, and Sterling for rest. The highlyrated local midfielder Phil Foden, 18, wasn’t among the substitutes used but the City manager promised afterwards: ‘I feel guilty (about not putting him on) but he will play a lot of games this season.’
City have now scored 19 goals in their last six games, although Guardiola always seems to wants more and said: ‘Yes, 3-0 is a good result but we created a lot of chances to score six or seven. It is clear we need to be more clinical.’
His man-management qualities then kicked in to give effusive praise t o Bernardo Silva who doesn’t always get the credit dished out to big stars like Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne.
‘I don’t forget his good behaviour last season when he wasn’t playing all the time. He is an example. If I stay here, he will stay here.’
That is Pep’s way of explaining to Sane what he needs to do to flourish at Manchester City.
He believes it is more effective than harsh words.