As Manchester City gathered around Riyad Mahrez to celebrate his thunderbolt in the fourth minute of their match with Leicester City, a bark from the touchline cut through the noise.
"ERIC" came the shout from Pep Guardiola, the manager beckoning the young defender to leave his teammates by the corner flag. Garcia duly sprinted to the technical area for what must have been close to a minute of detailed instructions that continued as he made his way back to position as the game restarted.
City's manager had seen his team take the lead, but had also spotted an unusual Leicester set-up that looked like it would try to exploit the Blues in a very specific way.
Given the full-time scoreline, Guardiola seemed prescient to be concerned at 1-0 with his orders either not carried out or not enough to stop the visitors. There is danger in viewing things in hindsight though, with the manager content with his side's first-half performance when they went in level after dominating the first half-hour.
Whether or not a 19-year-old who has told the club he wants to leave should have such an important role in the team - not just starting but passing on instructions to the rest - is debatable.
Ruben Dias can expect to play regularly while he joins, Nathan Ake will hope to step up his organising as he adapts to Guardiola's demands and Aymeric Laporte will be a reassuring presence once he is fully recovered after a positive Covid test. City have had all summer to bring in another centre-back though, and it is ultimately down to the club that other squad options John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi were not used.
If the reasons behind it can be questioned, it cannot be ignored that Garcia remains an important part of the manager's set-up despite only being around because Barcelona can't or won't get their wallet out after convincing him to join.
Guardiola has long admired the youngster's calmness, maturity and decision-making under pressure, even if he uncharacteristically joined City's slump in the second half against Leicester. And with key personnel out and others not yet bedded in, the manager turned to one of his trusted players to get his instructions across.
At the time, it felt to many like gamesmanship when City said they would keep Garcia until the end of his contract if Barcelona did not pay up this summer. The Blues had said exactly the same with Leroy Sane but a compromise had swiftly been found to allow him to go to Bayern Munich, and Guardiola has said for all of his squad that he doesn't want them at the Etihad if they would rather be elsewhere.
Yet as City battle at the start of this exceptional season on the back of a remarkably bad pre-season, the teenager set on a Barcelona return is still a vital cog in a machine the manager hopes there is plenty more life left in.
