Xabi Alonso Walking a Thin Line at Madrid Amidst Player Support.

No forward in Real Madrid’s history had experienced scoreless for as long as Rodrygo, but eventually he was unleashed and he had a statement to deliver, executed for public consumption. The Brazilian, who had failed to score in nine months and was starting only his fifth game this campaign, beat custodian Gianluigi Donnarumma to give them the opening goal against Pep Guardiola's side. Then he spun and ran towards the touchline to hug Xabi Alonso, the boss in the spotlight for whom this could prove an even greater liberation.

“It’s a difficult moment for him, similar to how it is for us,” Rodrygo commented. “Performances are not going our way and I sought to show the public that we are as one with the coach.”

By the time Rodrygo made his comments, the advantage had been lost, another loss following. City had turned it around, going 2-1 ahead with “not much”, Alonso observed. That can occur when you’re in a “fragile” situation, he added, but at least Madrid had reacted. Ultimately, they could not engineer a comeback. Endrick, introduced off the bench having played a handful of minutes all season, struck the woodwork in the closing stages.

A Delayed Sentence

“It wasn’t enough,” Rodrygo conceded. The issue was whether it would be adequate for Alonso to keep his role. “We didn’t feel that [this was a trial of the coach],” goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois remarked, but that was how it had been presented externally, and how it was perceived internally. “Our performance proved that we’re behind the manager: we have given a good account, offered 100%,” Courtois concluded. And so the axe was postponed, sentencing delayed, with games against Alavés and Sevilla imminent.

A Distinct Type of Loss

Madrid had been beaten at home for the second match in four days, extending their poor form to a mere pair of successes in eight, but this felt a somewhat distinct. This was a European powerhouse, rather than a domestic opponent. Stripped down, they had actually run, the simplest and most harsh charge not levelled at them on this night. With multiple players out injured, they had lost only to a scrambled finish and a spot-kick, nearly earning something at the end. There were “many of very good things” about this display, the manager argued, and there could be “no reproach” of his players, not this time.

The Bernabéu's Muted Reception

That was not always the full story. There were spells in the latter period, as discontent grew, when the Santiago Bernabéu had whistled. At the conclusion, a section of supporters had repeated that, although there was likewise pockets of appreciation. But for the most part, there was a quiet stream to the subway. “That’s normal, we understand it,” Rodrygo noted. Alonso remarked: “It’s nothing that doesn't occur before. And there were instances when they cheered too.”

Player Backing Remains Firm

“I feel the backing of the players,” Alonso affirmed. And if he backed them, they supported him too, at least for the media. There has been a unification, conversations: the coach had considered them, perhaps more than they had accommodated him, reaching somewhere not exactly in the center.

How lasting a fix that is is still an matter of debate. One seemingly minor incident in the post-match press conference seemed telling. Asked about Pep Guardiola’s suggestion to follow his own path, Alonso had allowed that implication to linger, responding: “I share a good rapport with Pep, we understand each other well and he knows what he is saying.”

A Basis of Fight

Most importantly though, he could be satisfied that there was a resistance, a reaction. Madrid’s players had not abandoned their coach during the game and after it they defended him. Some of this may have been for show, done out of professionalism or self-preservation, but in this context, it was meaningful. The commitment with which they played had been too – even if there is a risk of the most basic of requirements somehow being framed as a kind of success.

The previous day, Aurélien Tchouaméni had stated firmly the coach had a vision, that their shortcomings were not his doing. “I think my teammate Aurélien said it in the press conference,” Raúl Asencio said after full-time. “The key is [for] the players to alter the mindset. The attitude is the crucial element and today we have seen a difference.”

Jude Bellingham, pressed if they were behind the coach, also answered in numbers: “100%.”

“We persist in striving to solve it in the locker room,” he continued. “It's clear that the [outside] speculation will not be beneficial so it is about attempting to sort it out in there.”

“I think the coach has been superb. I individually have a strong rapport with him,” Bellingham stated. “Following the sequence of games where we were held a few, we had some really great conversations internally.”

“Everything passes in the end,” Alonso mused, maybe speaking as much about poor form as his own predicament.