Hansi Flick likes what he has seen. Barcelona's German coach has praised a mental shift inside the Catalan dressing room during the international break.
According to Sport, Flick sees players listening to their bodies as fundamental. The mistakes of the past during international breaks, which can carry a very heavy cost, must not be repeated.
For Flick and his staff, injuries were one of the main reasons the team crashed out of the Champions League earlier than he had hoped last season and fell short of its targets.
Raphinha missed a long stretch with physical problems, most of them stemming from the heavy workload he carried during his appearances with Brazil.
Almost nobody escaped. Jules Koundé, Baldé, Ferran Torres, Pedri and Frenkie de Jong all suffered, right through to Lamine Yamal.
Against that backdrop, Barcelona's staff studied how their players reacted during the latest international break, which stretched to around three weeks, longer than usual.
The Catalan club wants to avoid the pile-up of problems caused by too many minutes and too much travel, the very conditions that dragged down the team's level last season.
Flick is delighted. His players took no risks at all, listening to their bodies and stopping at the right moment.
Raphinha and Eric García embodied these new internal directives. The Brazilian forward, who felt pain in his right thigh last season after an appearance for his country, asked to come off at half-time against Australia when he sensed physical discomfort.
His compatriot in defence did the same. The Catalan centre-back pulled out during the warm-up before Spain's first match and returned to Barcelona for medical tests.
In both cases, the staff judged the decision to play it safe as the right one, the aim being to head off something more serious. The tests later confirmed that neither player had a serious injury.
This has to be the standard from now on: cutting risks in the interest of the club and the team. It may well be the factor that makes the difference in the chase for every title during a season so packed with matches.
Don't lose sight of the schedule. Barcelona are about to play five matches in two weeks. Between the trip to Getafe tomorrow and the Clásico on 25 October, they face three brutal journeys against Real Betis, Galatasaray and Paris Saint-Germain.
Rotation will stay central through this gruelling run. Before the break, Flick told the group he would be able to count on every available player once La Liga got under way.