Things have not exactly been going to plan for Arturo Vidal over the last few weeks. The Chilean was on the bench for his side’s Copa del Rey first leg tie against Real Madrid last Wednesday, and he did not play the full 90 minutes against Athletic Club on Sunday. Barcelona head coach Ernesto Valverde hauled him off in the second half and replaced him with Carles Alena as the young product from La Masia provided the team with more precision and new ideas. After Barcelona’s draw with the Basque outfit, Vidal was faced with lots of criticism about his poor performance. The former Juventus and Bayern Munich midfielder responded to some of the messages on his Instagram account.

Firstly, he uploaded a fragment of the reggaeton song ‘Vivencias remix’ by Super Yei, whose lyrics perfectly summed up the way Vidal was feeling when he responded to his critics: “They want to see me fail, but I am not going to let it happen; I have the heart of a warrior, these are the rules and he who breaks them will pay,” the lyrics go.

He later uploaded another photograph with the caption, “Never give up”. It is not the first time that Vidal has used social media to express his frustration.

After being a substitute at Wembley Stadium against Tottenham Hotspur, he uploaded angry emojis on Instagram. His teammates went on to win the game comfortably, which provoked Valverde to pull him to one side and have a word with him about his use of social media: “He has shown complete disrespect towards his teammates,” Pep Segura said.

Barcelona have drawn their past two matches in LaLiga Santander, while their Copa del Rey semi-final against Real Madrid is also very finely poised, but Ivan Rakitic isn’t worried. He is confident that the team will return to their best form after this week off, given that they have no Champions League of Copa del Rey fixtures this midweek.

“We always knew that the season is a long one,” he said after the 0-0 draw in Bilbao. “We are content. “We lacked a little precision with the final pass, but this team is hungry. “Now we have a calm week and then we’ll be on top in the coming games. “With all respect to Real Madrid and Atletico, we need to just focus on ourselves. “What we’ve been doing up to now has been really good. “We’re top of the table and have to continue.”

When Barcelona return from this free midweek, they’ll face Real Valladolid at home in the league.