A surprise omission from Germany's World Cup squad, Sane scored the opener in City's 2-1 defeat to Liverpool in the International Champions Cup but Guardiola said last season's PFA Young Player of the Year had room to improve.

"It depends on him," Guardiola told reporters. "He needs more minutes and he needs to regain his principles in terms of playing without the ball.

"He has the talent to do that and we are happy that he scored. Still, he is far away from his best."

Guardiola also said his team's performance against Liverpool showed there was a bright future for a young City squad.

"For 75 minutes, it was incredible what we did with the players we have ... Our personality was incredible. The average age of our players in the first half was very young."

City's next game in the competition is against Bayern Munich on Saturday. They are set to play Chelsea in the Community Shield on Aug. 5 before starting the defence of their Premier League title at Arsenal six days later.