FC Bayern Munich

“Coman scores wonder goal,” it says on Sky’s highlights of Bayern Munich’s 3-0 win over Freiburg. In truth, however, Kingsley Coman’s opener was a flukey, overhit cross — the real dazzler of the day came courtesy of Leroy Sane. The 27-year-old picked up a pass from Coman outside the box, turned Merlin Rohl outside-in with a touch wide followed by a nutmeg and then curled — no, painted — the ball into the top corner while still running at full speed.

Sadly, Sane’s dreamlike move and finish will go down as a Bundesliga non-goal for the ages, chalked off after the VAR found the teeniest offside imaginable. But that’s a technical detail, irrelevant to the bigger story here: after years of ups and downs in Munich, Sane is on a different level to everyone else in the Bundesliga, “dominating the league” just as Thomas Tuchel had demanded of him at the start of the campaign and, at last, consistently producing the kind of world-class football he’s always been capable of.

Seven goals in 11 matches (across all competitions) constitute his best start in Munich, putting him on course for passing his personal season record at Bayern (14) from 2022-23 and 2021-22. Aside from finding the net, there’s a sense that Sane is much more ‘on it’ in all phases of the game, too.

“He played with real clarity today, (he was) very, very dangerous,” Tuchel said when praising Sane after his side’s 3-0 win against Freiburg. “His runs and dribbles were sharp. If he plays with that kind of freedom, hunger and positive body language, he can make the difference.”

The manager’s praise offers an interesting glimpse into the very things that had supposedly been missing in the former Manchester City winger’s performances before. At serial champions Bayern — who love to talk up their “winner DNA” at any opportunity — appearing disinterested or somewhat soft in matches, as Sane sometimes did, was seen as unforgivable.

“Leroy has very high demands of himself,” explains a senior source at the club, who, like all sources in this piece, spoke under the condition of anonymity to protect relationships. “Everyone in the dressing room knows that he’s one of the best players, if not the best, when he plays to his full potential. But when things didn’t come off, he often very quickly got frustrated and dropped his head.”

His frustration read as apathy on camera and the terraces. Supporters were enraged — he was jeered at Allianz Arena a couple of years ago — and team-mates unnerved.

These days, they can trust him as he has learned to trust himself.

“He’s become much more experienced and resilient,” the club source says. “An early mistake or two doesn’t derail him. He doesn’t go missing any more.” His decision-making, or “clarity” as Tuchel called it, has markedly become more solid, too.

Julian Nagelsmann initially played the left-footed forward as an inside-left two seasons ago to simplify his game. On the right, Sane had looked always a little torn between cutting inside and going towards the touchline on his weaker foot; in those few nano-seconds of hesitation, opponents would win the ball. These days, though, he glides past opponents on either the inside or outside from the right, all on autopilot. It’s no longer a shock to see him rush back to engage opponents in Bayern’s half, either. And his amount of downtime — passages of little impact during games — has shrunk from entire weeks in the past to a few minutes here and there.

A strong relationship with Tuchel has undoubtedly helped. The former Chelsea manager isn’t known as the greatest player whisperer but in his words, “there’s good chemistry” between the two. Sane, an extremely likeable and thoughtful character, is also much-loved in the dressing room.

“You sense that he feels at home here,” the Bayern source tells The Athletic.

A settled private life with his American wife Candice Brook, back in Munich after spending some time in Manchester earlier this year, is also seen as a big factor behind the upswing according to a source close to the player.

Then there’s the Harry Kane effect.

England’s captain can still play better and score more goals in Munich, and his full tactical integration remains a work in progress. But Tuchel’s hope that Kane would make “everyone better” has already been borne out by Sane’s spectacular improvement. By pinning back centre-backs and often moving out wide to the right, Kane is creating plenty of space for the winger. They also combine beautifully. While Sane is yet to find Kane with a direct assist, the former Tottenham Hotspur striker had played in his team-mate for four of his seven goals, including a nice one-two for Bayern’s second goal against Freiburg on Saturday.

Beyond that, Tuchel’s tactical tweaks have made life easier for Sane. Bayern’s manager is happy for his team to be more passive and deeper out of possession, inviting teams forward to create more space when the German champions win the ball back, with a lot of their moves resembling counter-attacks as a result.

Sane’s pace and close control at full tilt make him the ideal player for this rather direct ploy. Instead of having to press hard and get involved early on in the build-up, he has been freed to come alive much further down the pitch. His touches in the attacking third have shot up from 30.6 last season to 41.0 this season, and inside the box, the change is even sharper, from 4.5 to 7.2. His touches in the middle third, meanwhile, have plummeted as Bayern look to move the ball more quickly up front.

Graphic

Sane is getting on the ball in consistently more dangerous areas closer to goal, leading to an increased shot output. Though he isn’t taking more shots, the average quality of his goalscoring chances is much higher, as we can see from the graphic below. The average distance of his shots this season is down by around four yards on previous seasons, while his non-penalty expected goals (xG) per shot is up significantly to 0.20, meaning his average shot quality is much higher. Only Jonas Wind (Wolfsburg) and Serhou Guirassy (Stuttgart) have a higher xG per shot of players who have registered at least 15 efforts on goal this season.

Graphic

Finally, the “hunger” Tuchel referenced shouldn’t be underestimated.

Sane, out of contract in 2025, wouldn’t be the first player to find an extra yard precisely at the right time to maximise his options going forward. If he wants one more big move — to Real Madrid, for example, who have been following him closely — everyone knows that it will have to happen this summer. If not, the club will be all too delighted to tie down Germany’s player of the season in the making for longer. The way he is going at the moment, Bayern had better get a move on.