Leroy Sané's Electric Debut for Bayern Munich Hints at Potent Partnership

After 70 electric minutes, Leroy Sané sat in the stands with arms outstretched across the adjacent seats as his multi-million pound legs hung over the chair in front of him, a perfect embodiment of a Hahn auf dem Mist.

This German idiom - which literally translates to 'a rooster sitting on a pile of dirt' - is used to describe somebody very pleased with themselves and, given Sané's dazzling debut for Bayern Munich, there was plenty of reason for a little pride from 24-year-old.

In his first competitive club start since rupturing his ACL all the way back in the pre-pandemic days of August 2019, Sané laid on two assists and found the net in Bayern's 8-0 humbling of Schalke to begin their Bundesliga title defence.

Incidentally, Sané's last Bundesliga appearance came while he was playing for Friday's opponents four years ago. Lining up against his boyhood club for the third time in his career, Sané started the match on the left of Bayern's front three with Robert Lewandowski through the middle and Serge Gnabry on the opposite flank.

The 23-year-old spent the vast majority of his Manchester City career hugging the left-hand touchline. As one of the few left-footers on their 'natural' side, Sané - with the right-footed Raheem Sterling often on the other wing - stretched the pitch as wide as possible, and was often used as a decoy for David Silva to find a gap in the half space.

However, Sané was much narrower on Friday night, often swapping sides with Gnabry in a fluid first half.

In the second 45 minutes, Sané, his shirt adorned with the club's number ten, largely stayed on the right flank with Gnabry - Bayern's number seven - on the left. Franck Ribéry and Arjen Robben formed a decade-long dynasty down the wings for Bayern wearing those same digits. Much like Gnabry and Sané, the famous duo got off to a flying start in their first match together.

Robben and Ribéry had been on the pitch together for less than five minutes before the latter drove over the halfway line and shunted a pass into the path of his new Dutch teammate. Robben steadied himself and made it 2-0 against Wolsburg on his Bayern debut in 2009.

With ten minutes to play, the pair combined again, exchanging passes at blistering speed as the opposition defenders struggled to keep up and their teammates didn't even bother. Robben netted his second and each goal was celebrated with a knowing point and high five between a partnership which would become known as 'Robbéry'.

For 'Sanabry' - as they have been christened - it was Sané who played the role of provider.

Having won possession in their own final third, Bayern conducted a high-speed flurry of accurate pinball to find Gnabry on the halfway line, who set Sané charging in behind Schalke's discombobulated defence. The 24-year-old's searing pace saw him beat both defender and goalkeeper to the ball and furnish Gnabry with an open goal.

On the cusp of the hour-mark, Bayern again snatch the ball away from Schalke. Within seconds of Joshua Kimmich controlling the recovery and looking up, Sané was already a blur of red through the centre of Schalke's porous backline. The Germany international cushioned Kimmich's lofted pass on his chest and pivoted away from Ozan Kabak to roll the ball into the feet of, you guessed it, Gnabry, to complete his hat-trick.

Like Robben and Ribéry a decade beforehand, both of Sanabry's (is that going to stick?) goals were scored on the counter-attack, thanks to the pair's piercing pace.

Sané was constantly darting in behind the last line of beleaguered Royal Blues and racked up more sprints than any other player on the pitch with 40. The last of these surges in the 71st minute saw him blitz into the swathes of empty, green grass between Schalke's defence and goalkeeper, before side-footing Bayern's seventh of the night past Ralf Fährmann.

Yet, incredibly, Bayern's £40m signing wasn't even fully fit by his own admission. After the eight-goal drubbing, Sané told Bayern's official website: “Of course I want to go full throttle, but I'm not quite at 100% yet."

As frightening as the 8-0 scoreline may be, the prospect of Sané improving upon Friday night's showing is perhaps the most worrisome takeaway, from a night of emphatic statements, for the Bundesliga's other sides.