Xabi Alonso Walking a Precarious Line at the Bernabéu Despite Dressing Room Support.

No attacker in the club's history had endured without a goal for as extended a period as Rodrygo, but at last he was released and he had a message to broadcast, acted out for the world to see. The Brazilian, who had been goalless in nine months and was starting only his fifth game this season, beat shot-stopper Gianluigi Donnarumma to hand his team the opening goal against Pep Guardiola's side. Then he spun and charged towards the bench to hug Xabi Alonso, the boss on the edge for whom this could signal an profound relief.

“This is a difficult moment for him, similar to how it is for us,” Rodrygo stated. “Performances are not going our way and I sought to demonstrate people that we are as one with the coach.”

By the time Rodrygo addressed the media, the advantage had been lost, a setback following. City had come back, going 2-1 ahead with “not much”, Alonso remarked. That can transpire when you’re in a “sensitive” state, he added, but at least Madrid had reacted. On this occasion, they could not pull off a comeback. Endrick, introduced off the bench having played 11 minutes all season, rattled the bar in the closing stages.

A Reserved Sentence

“The effort fell short,” Rodrygo conceded. The issue was whether it would be enough 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 presented externally, and how it was perceived internally. “We have shown that we’re behind the coach: we have played well, offered 100%,” Courtois concluded. And so the final decision was reserved, consequences pending, with fixtures against Alavés and Sevilla looming.

A Different Form of Setback

Madrid had been defeated at home for the second occasion in four days, perpetuating their uninspiring streak to a mere pair of successes in eight, but this felt a somewhat distinct. This was a European powerhouse, not a domestic opponent. Simplified, they had actually run, the easiest and most damning charge not aimed at them on this night. With multiple players out injured, they had lost only to a scrambled finish and a converted penalty, nearly earning something at the final whistle. There were “numerous of very good things” about this performance, the manager stated, and there could be “no criticism” of his players, tonight.

The Fans' Ambivalent Response

That was not entirely the complete picture. There were periods in the closing 45 minutes, as frustration grew, when the Santiago Bernabéu had jeered. At the final whistle, a section of supporters had repeated that, although there was in addition sporadic clapping. But mostly, there was a subdued procession to the exits. “That’s normal, we accept it,” Rodrygo said. Alonso remarked: “There's nothing that hasn’t happened before. And there were instances when they applauded too.”

Player Unity Remains Firm

“I feel the support of the players,” Alonso declared. And if he backed them, they stood by him too, at least in front of the cameras. There has been a coming together, discussions: the coach had listened to them, perhaps more than they had adapted to him, reaching common ground not exactly in the center.

Whether durable a fix that is remains an open question. One little exchange in the after-game press conference seemed telling. Asked about Pep Guardiola’s suggestion to stick to his principles, Alonso had allowed that implication to hang there, responding: “I have a good connection with Pep, we know each other well and he understands what he is talking about.”

A Basis of Fight

Crucially though, he could be content that there was a fight, a response. Madrid’s players had not abandoned their coach during the game and after it they publicly backed him. Some of this may have been performative, done out of duty or self-interest, but in this climate, it was significant. The effort with which they played had been too – even if there is a risk of the most elementary of expectations somehow being promoted as a type of achievement.

In the build-up, Aurélien Tchouaméni had stated firmly the coach had a strategy, that their shortcomings were not his responsibility. “I believe my colleague Aurélien nailed it in the press conference,” Raúl Asencio said post-match. “The key is [for] the players to improve the approach. The attitude is the crucial element and today we have seen a difference.”

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

“We persist in striving to figure it out in the locker room,” he elaborated. “We understand that the [outside] chatter will not be beneficial so it is about trying to sort it out in there.”

“I think the manager has been excellent. I myself have a great rapport with him,” Bellingham stated. “After the sequence of games where we were held a few, we had some very productive conversations behind the scenes.”

“All things ends in the end,” Alonso concluded, maybe speaking as much about adversity as anything else.