Report: Leroy Sane did not take a holiday break and instead continued to train on days off

Leroy Sane may not have gotten off to the most glorious of starts at Bayern Munich, but his solid shift in the 5-2 win over Mainz 05 last weekend was capped off with a brilliantly taken goal cutting in from the right onto his left foot a la Arjen Robben.

Sane still hasn’t quite hit his full stride at Bayern and his frustration was highlighted when he was subbed off in the second half of Bayern’s 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen after coming on as a sub midway through the first half.

Per a new report from Sport Bild, it’s been revealed that Sane did not take the standard issued holiday break during the brief winter-pause and instead put in the extra work at Sabener Strasse to try and fine tune his game. In addition to the fitness regimen that was given to all of the players by Holger Broich, Sane also completed his own program with a private trainer.

Per the report, Sane primarily worked on an upper body program with his private trainer and also did some leg and flexibility training on top of all of the conditioning. There really weren’t any more specifics provided with regards to the program from Sane’s private trainer, but’s well known that Hansi Flick had made it clear to Sane earlier in the season that he expected more defensive work from him as well as more effectiveness in the counter-pressing situations.

It’s refreshing to see that Sane has taken it upon himself to put in the extra work because the tracking back and counter-pressing is essential from the wing positions with the systems that Flick utilizes most often.

Photo by Diego Souto/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images

It was also evident in the 5-2 win over Mainz that Sane was much more involved on both sides of the ball and that he made a point of tracking back. It worked even better in the second half when Flick made the decision to introduce Niklas Sule and Leon Goretzka to replace Jerome Boateng and Benjamin Pavard, which pushed Joshua Kimmich to right back, on the flank where Sane was playing. The coverage down the right channel between Kimmich and Sane worked much better than Sane and Pavard, with no discredit to the French international.

Hopefully for Sane, he continues on in this direction and is able to keep working hard on both sides of the ball and be able to play the full 90 minutes when called upon. The confidence is showed in 1v1 situations against Mainz was also encouraging and his solo run goal was a prime example of that.