Pep tips Germany star to have a successful season

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has encouraged Leroy Sane to use his World Cup snub as motivation this season.

Sane was surprisingly dropped from Joachim Low’s 23-man Germany squad after winning the PFA Young Player of the Season award, netting 10 goals and providing 15 assists in the Premier League last term.

Germany, the defending champions, went on to fail spectacularly in the tournament, exiting at the first round for the first time since 1938.

And Guardiola wants the 22-year-old to use the disappointment of missing out to spur him on, as he said: “Leroy has to accept that this decision may make him stronger.

”He has the chance to show the national team from Germany and first of all us, he has another season to show his quality. He’s so young and in two years it is another European Championships and then in four years another World Cup. I think it’s the past now. The national trainer decided what’s the best for the national team.”

Sané, who won the PFA young player of year award after helping City to secure the Premier League title, missed out to Julian Brandt of Bayer Leverkusen while the manager, Joachim Löw, also opted to cut Bernd Leno, Jonathan Tah and Nils Petersen from his squad.“There are certainly better days in the life of a national coach than when you must send four great players home who would have deserved to be at a World Cup,” Löw said at the time of Sane’s Omission.

“You have to look at the big picture so we have a variable and well-balanced team prepared for all eventualities. We have good players on the wing in Thomas Müller and Marco Reus. Julian Draxler played a good Confed Cup and made progress there.

t was a tight race between Leroy Sané and Julian Brandt. Both have big qualities, both are good in the one-on-one duels. Julian Brandt was at the Confed Cup, had some strong games there, and put in good shifts in the training camp too. Leroy Sané is a huge talent, no doubt, and he will be back with the team in September,”  Low added.

Without Sane in Russia, the Germans lacked a player who offered natural width and as a result found it hard to break a disciplined defence as was the case when they lost their opening match 1-0 to very well compact Mexico. Toni Kroos scored an injury time winner in their second match against Sweden but faced with a well organised defence again against South Korea,the Germans fell out of ideas and lost 2-0, exiting the competition in the group stage.