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Football

01st Sep 2018

Pep Guardiola leaves Leroy Sane out of Man City squad over ‘attitude’ concerns

Simon Lloyd

The German winger will not be involved in City’s game against Newcastle in Saturday evening

Pep Guardiola has reportedly left Leroy Sane out of Manchester City’s squad for their game against Newcastle United over concerns about the player’s attitude.

Goal claim that sources have told them the City manager has been unhappy with Sane recently and believes leaving him out of the matchday squad will send him a message.

Sane, who was a surprise omission from Germany’s World Cup squad in the summer, has hardly featured in City’s three league games this season. He did appear from the bench in the 1-1 draw away to Wolverhampton Wanderers last week but was unable to make an impact at Molineux.

Guardiola had played down suggestions that Sane’s attitude and fitness levels were not as expected during preseason. However, the report claims that the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager and his staff have been left unimpressed by the 22-year-old’s focus.

Sane was a key player for City as they won the Premier League title with a record points tally last season. As well as scoring 14 goals for the club, he was also named PFA Young Player of the season.

City have seven points from their opening three matches of the new campaign. Although they were held to a draw by Wolves in their last outing, they beat Arsenal 2-0 at The Emirates and thumped Huddersfield Town 6-1 in their only home game of the new campaign so far.