Hansi Flick taking a swipe at his players three weeks into the new La Liga season was certainly not on the bingo card of any Barcelona fan for this campaign.

The Spanish champions dropped points for the first time this season at Rayo Vallecano on Sunday night, when goalkeeper Joan Garcia was their best player in a 1-1 draw. After the match, Flick locked his players in the dressing room, holding a team meeting in which he made his displeasure known.

Barca’s start to the season has not been entirely terrible — they have taken seven points from three consecutive away games, having asked La Liga to start this way to ease the pressure on their delayed Camp Nou rebuild.

But Flick has been unhappy with his team’s performances in each of their matches so far, and the 60-year-old German felt Sunday night was the time to act.

Sources from the first-team unit — who, like all those cited here, preferred to speak anonymously as they did not have permission to comment — say the manager’s message was along the same lines as what he said in his post-match news conference, although slightly stronger. He wanted to remind them that collective efforts must be the team’s top priority once they step onto the pitch.

“The most important thing is that, when the transfer window is closed, everyone who stays is 100 per cent committed to this club,” Flick said to the media after Sunday’s game.

“No egos, because egos kill success. Last season, we played as one unit. We have to be like this again now.”

Hansi Flick reacting on the sidelines on Sunday night (Alvaro Medranda/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)

Multiple players saw Flick’s comments as fair criticism and something that was needed, too. But there are two ways of considering the timing.

Given the wild and noisy nature of the Barcelona ‘entorno’ — literally translated as environment or surroundings, the word was used by Johan Cruyff to describe the unique pressures at the club — the fallout over the weekend’s draw will only be more intense during this pause from the domestic game.

With Barca not playing again until September 14 (two weeks on from the Rayo result) against Valencia, the narrative in local media will be centred primarily on this topic. This week, we have already seen multiple Barca players interviewed about Flick’s comments while on national team duty with Spain.

For some, that might be considered a problem — a sign the negative mood might endure or even grow. However, with several days now having gone by and with the expected debates still unfolding in Barcelona media, there are people around Barca’s dressing room who believe Flick chose to speak when he did precisely because of the international break, so his words had a chance to linger longer.

Barca’s backroom staff were fully aware that the sour taste of Sunday’s poor display would last for weeks. Their view was that perhaps sending the players off with a powerful message would at least bring some benefit — to make them think, process their mistakes and be willing to prove a point when they come back.

“If you want to send this message to the players, now is certainly the time to make them think about that deeper than they would when the team has a game every three days,” one dressing-room source said.

Joan Garcia was a key performer in Sunday’s 1-1 draw (Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP via Getty Images)

There are a couple of things to acknowledge from the Rayo game. Firstly, if it were not for Joan Garcia’s heroics in goal — the summer signing from Espanyol registered five big saves — Barca would have lost. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, this had been coming.

Three games is not a great sample size from which to draw conclusions, but in them Barca conceded 12 big chances. According to Opta, that is the worst record in La Liga so far this season. Real Madrid, the best team in that department, have conceded just one. Last term, it took Barca six matches to concede 12 big chances.

What might be behind it? The loss of Inigo Martinez to Al Nassr in the transfer window has had an impact, more than some people might have expected. But as vital as the 34-year-old centre-back was to Flick’s plans, Barcelona’s defensive system goes beyond the performance of their four ‘defenders’ on the pitch — it requires every individual, and especially the forwards with their high pressing, to be in sync.

In Barca’s opening game against Real Mallorca on August 16, Flick was disappointed to see his players take their foot off the pedal in the second half when they were already 2-0 up (they won 3-0) and after their hosts had been reduced to nine players through two red cards. A week later at Levante, Flick complained about the unnecessary mistakes that saw Barca go into the break two goals down (they eventually won 3-2).

This is all important in understanding why Flick decided that enough was enough after the Rayo draw. The Madrid-based side, led by 37-year-old manager Inigo Perez, played an outstanding match and followed a clever gameplan, but Flick felt the bad habits his team have slipped into, across multiple games, were a bigger problem than the disruptions caused by their opponents.

Now the majority of Barca players have gone away on international duty, with six of them in Spain’s squad (it was seven before Gavi withdrew with injury). It was only a matter of time before they were asked about “egos” and the rest of Flick’s message.

“I don’t know who Flick was referring to with his words, you should go and ask him,” Pedri said in an interview with radio station Onda Cero, in which he also warned his team not to become too selfish. “Last season we were all going as a unit, we did not chase for the success of every person or individual. We wanted the best for the team, and that was the key to our success.”

Lamine Yamal, meanwhile, was interviewed by Spanish public television TVE. “Egos? Everyone has their opinion, but I don’t think our problems are down to that,” he said. “It has to do with the fact that we have not started the season with the same intensity we ended the last one.

“After a draw like that, you are always frustrated, but we’ve taken seven points out of nine playing away from home in difficult stadiums, which people sometimes forget. The manager is right, we made too many mistakes, but this can happen. We have to get back to our level as soon as possible now.”

Pedri described Barca as a ‘unit’ last year (Alberto Gardin/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Barcelona have assembled their best squad in ages and are starting the season with the tag of favourites in every competition they play in — a feeling many fans had almost forgotten.

There were always issues they had to fix, and their defensive record in big games across the latter stages of the previous campaign was a warning sign that loomed over the new season.

But this week is showing that, besides all the football-related tweaks Barcelona will need to make, Flick handling a group of players that went from an unbalanced squad to a bunch of Ballon d’Or contenders in just one season will be arguably his most important job of all.

(Top photo: Alvaro Medranda/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)