Sane must earn Guardiola’s trust to fulfil Ballon d’Or potential

“He was incredible, offensively, defensively. He created chances, positive in the mind, reactions good, but sometimes it’s not there.” 

Those were the thoughts of Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola with regards to Leroy Sane’s performance against Bournemouth at the weekend, and the German has well and truly hit his stride once more. 

It’s taken the 2017/18 PFA Young Player of the Year a little time to reach the heights of last season, but Sane is now surpassing what he has ever done at the club previously, and his progress since arriving in England has been outstanding. 

However, his attitude and application is still questioned at times, with Guardiola having been unimpressed with how the youngster has approached the last two campaigns in terms of his pre-season preparations.  

This summer the City boss stated, “He needs more minutes and he needs to regain his principles in terms of playing without the ball Still, he is far away from his best."

It meant that Sane was restricted to substitute appearances in the club’s first three league games of the season, while he was left out of the squad altogether in the fourth against Newcastle ahead of the September international break. 

Compatriot and teammate Toni Kroos said of the 22-year-old at the time, "Sometimes you have the feeling that it's a bit like he (Sane) doesn't care whether he wins or loses.” 

It certainly seems as though the winger is a character that needs a kick up the proverbial every now and again, commenting on working under Guardiola in the past: “I can say he changed my game completely, I improved so much with so many issues, and he still tries to be perfect and to give me pressure. I think I need it too. He reminds me all the time to work more, work harder, and think about what I'm not so good at." 

He certainly returned from the aforementioned break keen to prove a point, scoring in his first league start of the season against Fulham and keeping his place for the trip to Cardiff and visit of Brighton. Those are the sort of games he has tended to play this season though, and it’s telling that Sane was dropped from the line-up for the meetings with Liverpool, Tottenham and Manchester United. 

There is clearly still an issue of trust from his coach when it comes to the big games, and it will be intriguing to see whether Sane keeps his place for the upcoming clash with Chelsea, having questioned the former Schalke starlet's defensive contribution. It’s what Guardiola was so enamoured by in the winger’s performance against Bournemouth and the one aspect of his game that, with improvement, will mark him out as one of the finest of his generation. 

All in all Sane has improved in every single aspect of his game with the ball since arriving at the Etihad after all. His goals and assists per 90 minutes are up from 0.3 and 0.2 in his first season at the club to 0.7 and 0.6 so far this time around, while shots, key passes, dribbles and passes per 90 - along with his pass accuracy - have also risen year-on-year. 

Moreover, Guardiola has challenged his mercurial wide man to improve his consistency but when he has started this season, Sane has been just that. That, perhaps, is attributable to the calibre of the opposition he has faced. The youngster hasn’t had the same impact in the previous two Champions League seasons - last scoring in the competition back in March 2017 when City crashed out to Monaco - but as far as this season is concerned, in the Premier League at least, Sane can only beat what is in front of him. 

His six goals and five assists this season have all come in eight league starts - with a direct hand in at least one goal in all of said outings - meaning his WhoScored.com rating is a sensational 8.39 when factoring out substitute appearances. That’s the highest in the league by a distance and suggests that while he may not have been up against much, Sane is proving to be a class apart. 

“Maybe in the future, he will be more consistent like Fernandinho, David [Silva], Bernando Silva, every game eight or nine [out of 10]”, Guardiola stated at the weekend. “That is what I’m looking for from him.” 

If the Spaniard can get that out of Sane then he won’t only be a pivotal player for the club for many years but the German has the potential to be one of the very best players in the world. A Ballon d’Or winner in the making if he continues to learn from Guardiola and progress in the way that he has to date, the youngster has a point to prove having been omitted from Germany’s World Cup squad, which one would hope would fuel his ambition to do just that. 

Right now he is arguably playing the best football of any player in the Premier League, the question is how long that continues to be the case. One thing for certain is that Sane’s ‘ceiling’ is among the very highest in the game.