Bayern Munich are looking to complete the signing of Leroy Sane, but Manchester City won’t agree to their every wish
Pep Guardiola said he was going to use his full squad as much as possible to cope with Manchester City’s packed fixture list in these six weeks and he has been good to his word.
City’s manager has 16 changes to his XIs in the four matches since the restart and Claudio Bravo became the 20th player to earn a start when he replaced Ederson in goal for the Newcastle game.
For all the rotation, Leroy Sane has spent all but 11 minutes of the four games on the bench. Despite the break allowing him to fully return to fitness having missed the entire season, the winger has not yet been picked to start at all with Riyad Mahrez the chief beneficiary as the only player to line up in every match since the resumption.
Eleven minutes from one appearance, with the other three matches spent going through the motions of warming up without ever getting onto the pitch, has been quite something to witness for a player who has been clearly missed this season. The man who started and scored the decisive winner against Liverpool last season now looks to have little chance of featuring against City’s biggest rivals this week.