Alonso Walking a Thin Path at Madrid Even With Dressing Room Support.

No offensive player in Los Blancos' annals had experienced without a goal for as extended a period as Rodrygo, but at last he was freed and he had a declaration to deliver, executed for public consumption. The Brazilian, who had not scored in an extended drought and was starting only his fifth game this campaign, beat custodian Gianluigi Donnarumma to hand his team the advantage against the English champions. Then he wheeled and ran towards the bench to hug Xabi Alonso, the coach on the edge for whom this could represent an more significant liberation.

“This is a tough time for him, like it is for us,” Rodrygo commented. “Things aren’t coming off and I wanted to prove everyone that we are united with the coach.”

By the time Rodrygo addressed the media, the lead had been lost, another loss following. City had turned it around, going 2-1 ahead with “very little”, Alonso observed. That can occur when you’re in a “sensitive” state, he elaborated, but at least Madrid had reacted. Ultimately, they could not engineer a turnaround. Endrick, introduced off the bench having played very little all season, rattled the woodwork in the final seconds.

A Reserved Judgment

“The effort fell short,” Rodrygo admitted. The question was whether it would be sufficient for Alonso to hold onto his position. “We didn’t feel that [this was a trial of the coach],” veteran keeper Thibaut Courtois insisted, but that was how it had been presented externally, and how it was felt privately. “We have shown that we’re behind the coach: we have given a good account, provided 100%,” Courtois affirmed. And so the axe was postponed, any action suspended, with matches against Alavés and Sevilla looming.

A Distinct Type of Defeat

Madrid had been defeated at home for the second match in four days, perpetuating their recent run to just two victories in eight, but this seemed a little different. This was the Premier League champions, rather than a La Liga opponent. Stripped down, they had shown fight, the simplest and most damning accusation not aimed at them this time. With a host of first-teamers out injured, they had lost only to a opportunistic strike and a penalty, coming close to securing something at the final whistle. There were “a lot of very good things” about this display, the manager argued, and there could be “no reproach” of his players, on this occasion.

The Fans' Mixed Response

That was not entirely the case. There were moments in the latter period, as irritation grew, when the Santiago Bernabéu had jeered. At the conclusion, a section of supporters had continued, although there was in addition some applause. But primarily, there was a subdued stream to the subway. “It's to be expected, we understand it,” Rodrygo said. Alonso added: “It’s nothing that doesn't occur before. And there were instances when they cheered too.”

Player Unity Is Firm

“I feel the backing of the players,” Alonso said. And if he supported them, they supported him too, at least for the media. There has been a coming together, discussions: the coach had listened to them, maybe more than they had accommodated him, reaching common ground not exactly in the middle.

How lasting a remedy that is continues to be an open question. One little exchange in the after-game press conference seemed telling. Asked about Pep Guardiola’s advice to stick to his principles, Alonso had permitted that notion to remain unanswered, replying: “I share a good connection with Pep, we understand each other well and he knows what he is saying.”

A Foundation of Fight

Crucially though, he could be content that there was a fight, a reaction. Madrid’s players had not given up during the game and after it they defended him. Some of this may have been for show, done out of duty or self-preservation, but in this tense environment, it was meaningful. The effort with which they played had been equally so – even if there is a danger of the most elementary of requirements somehow being elevated as a type of achievement.

Earlier, Aurélien Tchouaméni had argued the coach had a vision, that their shortcomings were not his fault. “I believe my teammate Aurélien nailed it in the press conference,” Raúl Asencio said after full-time. “The only way is [for] the players to improve the approach. The attitude is the crucial element and today we have observed a difference.”

Jude Bellingham, pressed if they were supporting the coach, also replied with a figure: “100%.”

“We persist in striving to solve it in the changing room,” he elaborated. “We understand that the [outside] chatter will not be productive so it is about attempting to fix it in there.”

“In my opinion the manager has been great. I personally have a strong rapport with him,” Bellingham added. “After the sequence of games where we were held a few, we had some honest conversations internally.”

“Every situation concludes in the end,” Alonso concluded, maybe talking as much about adversity as everything.