Manchester City forward Leroy Sane was pleased to give Pep Guardiola a timely reminder of his talents with a match-winning display in the 2-1 EFL Cup victory at West Brom.
Sane has been restricted to a solitary Premier League start this season, with that coming in the unfamiliar position of wing-back against Everton.
The Germany international scored a double from the bench in the 5-0 win over Liverpool earlier this month but has largely been the odd-man out amid Guardiola's array of attacking talent.
He grasped his chance to shine emphatically at The Hawthorns on Wednesday, opening the scoring in the third minute to herald a dominant first-half showing before hitting a brilliant winner 13 minutes from time after Claudio Yacob levelled for the hosts.
"Every player wants to play in the first 11. I think it's a more motivation for everyone to show the coach that they want to play," Sane told City's official website.
"We could have scored more goals in the first half as we had enough chances to make the game a bit quieter.
"In the second half we didn't have as good a contact with the ball and after this they played a lot of long balls and we are lucky they didn't score near the end."
Difficult away match, but in the end we made it to the next round! September 20, 2017
Despite top scorer Sergio Aguero, David Silva, Kevin De Bruyne and Benjamin Mendy all being rested for the match, Guardiola still sent out a strong line-up and Sane insists City cannot afford to pick and choose which competitions they try to win following a trophy-less campaign last time around.
"Every player wants to win everything. It's a dream for us all and everyone needs this motivation to win every single game," the 21-year-old added.
"It doesn't matter what competition we are in, we want to win."
