Sane is a perfect player for Guardiola and can help Man City topple former club Schalke
German has been in fine form once again this season and his former employers may know what is coming - but stopping him is another matter entirely
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MANCHESTER CITY did not recruit manager Pep Guardiola and spend millions on players just to win the Premier League.
Just like with Paris Saint-Germain in France, City’s owners want the Champions League.
So City ‘have’ to win the competition in the same way PSG do. Maybe I can’t quite say City have to win it, that’s too much.
Of course you must also respect the quality of the other sides.
But they have a good chance.
City are a top team with top players and a great coach. They are also more experienced now.
DRIVING THEM IN-SANE
We see Leroy Sane every week in the Premier League and when he plays in Europe.
It’s clear Germany missed him at the World Cup, because he is a special player.
He can make the difference in any game. He did that when he was at Schalke — and many times since he moved to City.
Hopefully he will also do it for Germany at the Euros in 2020.
Sane is a unique player, who has all the attributes he needs in his position.
Pace, intelligence, the ability to run both on and off the ball — and then to score goals.
The only thing that surprises me is that Pep wanted to let Jadon Sancho go and kept Sane.
He paid £37million for Sane and sold Sancho to Borussia Dortmund for £8m.
Then again, I think Leroy is the perfect player for Guardiola’s system and style.
And he has improved at City, absolutely. He was only 19 when he left Schalke. That was his home-town club, he had come from the youth team.
It wasn’t like me, leaving Bayern for Inter at 27, for fresh motivation and a new experience.
He moved to play for one of the best coaches in the world, who can only improve players — and he has done that with Sane.
UP IN THE AIR FOR SCHALKE
Schalke do not have the same quality as City, although they are not as bad as their Bundesliga position of 14th suggests.
It has been a difficult season for the club but the fans will be really up for it in Gelsenkirchen.
They will make it a hostile place for City.
And where Schalke can be dangerous is dead-ball situations.
They are a team that is physical and good in the air — with strong, powerful central defenders who are a threat at free-kicks and corners.
So if City give away too many of those situations, then they could have some problems.
VERDICT
Man for man, across the whole squad, City are far superior.
They are a team that can win the competition. Schalke know they cannot.
But of course this is the Champions League.
We saw last week in the games at Old Trafford and Wembley how things can change so quickly at the top level.
If you make mistakes you can be killed. That’s what happened to Dortmund at Spurs. One bad night and you are out, it’s over.
I just do not think City will have that night. They have been warned.
PREDICTION: SCHALKE 0 MANCHESTER CITY 2