Manager Alonso Navigating a Fine Tightrope at Madrid Despite Dressing Room Support.

No attacker in Real Madrid’s history had endured without a goal for as such a duration as Rodrygo, but at last he was freed and he had a message to send, executed for public consumption. The Brazilian, who had failed to score in an extended drought and was commencing only his fifth appearance this campaign, beat custodian Gianluigi Donnarumma to secure the lead against Pep Guardiola's side. Then he turned and charged towards the sideline to hug Xabi Alonso, the coach on the edge for whom this could prove an more significant release.

“This is a difficult time for him, just as it is for us,” Rodrygo said. “Results are not going our way and I aimed to show everyone that we are as one with the coach.”

By the time Rodrygo addressed the media, the lead had been taken from them, a defeat taking its place. City had come back, going 2-1 ahead with “very little”, Alonso observed. That can transpire when you’re in a “delicate” situation, he elaborated, but at least Madrid had fought back. This time, they could not engineer a turnaround. Endrick, introduced off the bench having played a handful of minutes all season, rattled the woodwork in the dying moments.

A Reserved Verdict

“It wasn’t enough,” Rodrygo said. The question was whether it would be sufficient for Alonso to keep his job. “We didn’t feel that [this was a trial of the coach],” veteran keeper Thibaut Courtois remarked, but that was how it had been framed publicly, and how it was perceived internally. “We have shown that we’re behind the manager: we have given a good account, given 100%,” Courtois affirmed. And so the axe was withheld, any action pending, with fixtures against Alavés and Sevilla imminent.

A Distinct Kind of Loss

Madrid had been beaten at home for the second match in four days, continuing their uninspiring streak to just two victories in eight, but this was a more respectable. This was the Premier League champions, as opposed to a domestic opponent. Stripped down, they had actually run, the most obvious and most critical charge not directed at them in this instance. With multiple players out injured, they had lost only to a scrambled finish and a converted penalty, nearly salvaging something at the final whistle. There were “numerous of very good things” about this display, the manager said, and there could be “no criticism” of his players, on this occasion.

The Stadium's Ambivalent Response

That was not entirely the full story. There were spells in the latter period, as frustration grew, when the Santiago Bernabéu had jeered. At the conclusion, a section of supporters had continued, although there was in addition sporadic clapping. But primarily, there was a muted procession to the subway. “We understand that, we comprehend it,” Rodrygo commented. Alonso remarked: “It’s nothing that doesn't occur before. And there were moments when they cheered too.”

Dressing Room Support Stands Strong

“I feel the backing of the players,” Alonso affirmed. And if he backed them, they stood by him too, at least in front of the media. There has been a unification, conversations: the coach had considered them, maybe more than they had embraced him, finding a point not precisely in the middle.

How lasting a remedy that is remains an open question. One small incident in the post-match press conference appeared telling. Asked about Pep Guardiola’s counsel to follow his own path, Alonso had permitted that idea to remain unanswered, answering: “I share a good relationship with Pep, we understand each other well and he knows what he is implying.”

A Starting Point of Fight

Most importantly though, he could be content that there was a resistance, a response. Madrid’s players had not let Alonso fall during the game and after it they publicly backed him. Some of this may have been for show, done out of professionalism or self-preservation, but in this climate, it was meaningful. The intensity with which they played had been too – even if there is a danger of the most elementary of expectations somehow being framed as a form of positive.

The previous day, Aurélien Tchouaméni had stated firmly the coach had a plan, that their failings were not his responsibility. “In my view my colleague Aurélien said it in the press conference,” Raúl Asencio said post-match. “The key is [for] the players to change the attitude. The attitude is the linchpin and today we have seen a shift.”

Jude Bellingham, asked if they were with the coach, also replied quantitatively: “100%.”

“We are continuing attempting to work it out in the locker room,” he said. “We know that the [outside] noise will not be beneficial so it is about trying to sort it out in there.”

“I think the coach has been great. I myself have a strong rapport with him,” Bellingham concluded. “Following the spell of games where we tied a few, we had some honest conversations internally.”

“Everything concludes in the end,” Alonso concluded, perhaps referring as much about poor form as everything.