Report: Julian Nagelsmann gave Leroy Sane stern words in buildup to Bayern Munich’s draw vs. Bayer Leverkusen

Leroy Sane has been a completely revitalized player ever since he was booed at the Allianz Arena by Bayern Munich fans early on in the Hinrunde. His overall performances have significantly improved for both Bayern and the German national team and he has been a key piece of Bayern’s attack as the still sit atop the Bundesliga table and await to find out who their Champions League quarter-finals opponents will be. So far this season, he’s tallied 14 goals and 15 assists from a total of 36 appearances across all competitions for Bayern.

Despite his overall strong resurgence this season, Julian Nagelsmann felt he expected more from Sane in recent weeks. He had benched the winger for the Bundesliga matches against Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer Leverkusen, coming on as a sub on both occasions before getting reinstated to the starting lineup for the Champions League clash against RB Salzburg.

Per a recent report from Sport Bild (via SPOX), Nagelsmann verbally called out Sane in front of the entire squad during a training session prior to Bayern’s 1-1 draw with Leverkusen. Despite scoring the match winner as a sub against Frankfurt the weekend prior, Nagelsmann had not been entirely pleased with Sane’s overall performances as of late, so he made the decision to give him a few stern words in front of the team. “Leroy, iIf you don’t feel like it, you can go back in,” he exclaimed to the winger in front of all of his teammates at Sabener Strasse.

Photo by Roland Krivec/DeFodi Images via Getty Images

At least for the match against Salzburg in the Champions League, Sane seemed to have taken Nagelsmann’s verbal warning to heart as he scored once and provided two assists in the 7-1 routing of the Austrian outfit. In the following league match against Hoffenheim, Sane had a number of chances to score, but failed to hit the target, much like a handful of his teammates on the afternoon as Bayern scraped to a 1-1 draw in Sinsheim. As a collective, Bayern didn’t do enough to take full points against Nagelsmann’s former club, and it’d be entirely too harsh to single out Sane for that result.