It's become a recurring question. The sort that comes up during games of moderate to limited importance when you wonder what exactly it is that we are missing with Leroy Sane.
What is the tell? What is the shortcoming of technique, application or comprehension that appears in some level of detail to the eye of Pep Guardiola but is lost on most others?
There are telescopes that can spot and measure black holes but evidently very little that can adequately explain why this tricky, gifted winger is designated by his manager as a player for the secondary occasion.
Manchester City winger Leroy Sane remains the man for the secondary occasion
In the parlance of match tickets, he appears by most metrics to be a category A player yet is only spotted in category B games and down.
Of course, no fixture is a throw-away at this stage in the dance. But Crystal Palace isn’t Tottenham away in the Champions League. It wasn’t Chelsea away in the Carabao Cup or home in the Premier League. It wasn’t Arsenal in February or Manchester United in November.
It almost never is. Only once this season in a truly big game – Liverpool in January – has he done the full 90. The rest of the games against the top six?
He started against Chelsea in December and got hauled off on 52 minutes, but before and after he has either started on the bench and made a cameo, or stayed on the bench for the duration. In the 18 games before this one, he started only seven.
Sane set up a goal for Raheem Sterling but finds it difficult to command a regular starting berth
And so you have to wonder during games like the one at Selhurst Park about why that is. It wasn’t his finest performance, but it was more than fine; it wasn’t his most effective, but it was very effective.
He did what he just about always does when given a chance, which is to contribute to a goal. On that gauge, the 23-year-old’s numbers are remarkable.
By setting up Raheem Sterling’s second with a quick pass behind the backline, he now has 17 assists to go with 15 goals from 25 starts in all competitions this season.
It’s the most assists by any Premier League player in 2018-19. For a measure of comparison, when Kevin
