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Manchester City need to be more collective this season but they also have to push each other.
Erling Haaland may not have been in South Wales on Wednesday night but he was quick to congratulate his teammates. “Well done guys,” he posted on social media, in addition to any private messages that may have been sent.
Haaland is very online at the moment and has always loved football, so it was hardly a surprise. It does, though, add to the sense that he is taking more of a leading role in this team and that even if he isn’t there - or may not be at the Etihad in the next round if he is rested again - he wants the team to feel his support.
City's No.9 wants more of a collective this season, just like captain Bernardo Silva and Pep Guardiola do. Guardiola went to the unprecedented lengths of picking his leadership group for the first time because he was so unhappy with what went on last year.
Anyone who stayed and suffered last year needs rebuilding, and the new arrivals need to learn what it feels like to be at City and what is expected. The collegiate nature of the squad is important, but so is the pushing - friends becoming rivals on the pitch.
"When they are fit they have to compete. Jeremy was unbelievable this season and didn't play against Brentford," the manager said last month.
"At the end, they have to compete and they have to decide between them and their excuses. They have to choose, do they do better or do they put an excuse in? Everyone can have their own problems and we all have families and our focuses but the one target as a team is to win games.
"If you score three goals every game don't worry because you will play every single week. If you are the best defender, you will play. But if you have excuses you cannot improve.
"One of the reasons why we had success in this club is we never had excuses. It's good that they have to compete with each other and when the ones in the stands see Jeremy and Nico and all of them playing good, they are not stupid - they know that this is the standard and the level and that they have to play good or they will not play."
Four players made their first starts after injuries at Swansea, with Omar Marmoush scoring and Rayan Cherki getting a goal and an assist in a man-of-the-match performance. Those two squeeze the minutes for every other attacker, while at the back it is now two games since Nico O'Reilly started.
The competition is here, and while it may not be perfect yet it needs everyone to raise their game.
A number of players have done well to lift City out of their early-season slump, and they have credit in the bank for that. But that can be quickly forgotten as the Blues move onto the next part of their campaign.
Everyone wants to be the one being congratulated rather than sending the messages.
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