It wasn't simply because Jasper Cillessen looked pretty ordinary on both the goals, via which Barcelona lost to Alaves, that old friends Luis Enrique and Pep Guardiola were linked by Claudio Bravo at the weekend.
So much of football, once you take talent and fitness as basic staples, is about belief systems: confidence, psychology, conviction and dogged determination.
After Guardiola's team won at Old Trafford in that exceptional Manchester derby, he was asked whether he was troubled by how many times Bravo had had to play the ball like a sweeper.
"But that's exactly why we played so well!