Manager Alonso Navigating a Fine Path at Real Madrid Despite Player Backing.

No attacker in the club's history had gone failing to find the net for as extended a period as Rodrygo, but at last he was unleashed and he had a declaration to deliver, performed for public consumption. The Brazilian, who had not scored in an extended drought and was starting only his fifth game this campaign, beat shot-stopper Gianluigi Donnarumma to hand his team the opening goal against Pep Guardiola's side. Then he wheeled and charged towards the bench to hug Xabi Alonso, the coach under pressure for whom this could represent an even greater relief.

“It’s a difficult period for him, just as it is for us,” Rodrygo said. “Things aren’t coming off and I wanted to show people that we are united with the coach.”

By the time Rodrygo made his comments, the advantage had been lost, a defeat ensuing. City had reversed the score, going 2-1 ahead with “not much”, Alonso noted. That can transpire when you’re in a “delicate” situation, he elaborated, but at least Madrid had responded. This time, they could not complete a comeback. Endrick, introduced off the bench having played very little all season, hit the woodwork in the closing stages.

A Reserved Verdict

“It wasn’t enough,” Rodrygo said. The issue was whether it would be sufficient for Alonso to retain 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 portrayed in the media, and how it was understood behind closed doors. “Our performance proved that we’re with the coach: we have played well, provided 100%,” Courtois concluded. And so the final decision was withheld, sentencing pending, with fixtures against Alavés and Sevilla looming.

A More Credible Form of Defeat

Madrid had been beaten at home for the second time in four days, extending their uninspiring streak to a mere pair of successes in eight, but this seemed a somewhat distinct. This was the Premier League champions, rather than a domestic opponent. Stripped down, they had shown fight, the simplest and most critical criticism not aimed at them on this night. With multiple players out injured, they had lost only to a messy goal and a penalty, coming close to earning something at the final whistle. There were “a lot of very good things” about this showing, the manager argued, and there could be “no reproach” of his players, not this time.

The Fans' Mixed Reception

That was not entirely the case. There were periods in the latter period, as frustration grew, when the Santiago Bernabéu had whistled. At the final whistle, a section of supporters had repeated that, although there was also pockets of appreciation. But primarily, there was a subdued flow to the exits. “That’s normal, we accept it,” Rodrygo noted. Alonso added: “It’s nothing that hasn’t happened before. And there were instances when they applauded too.”

Player Support Is Evident

“I sense the support of the players,” Alonso said. And if he stood by them, they backed him too, at least towards the public. There has been a coming together, talks: the coach had accommodated them, arguably more than they had accommodated him, reaching a point not exactly in the middle.

How lasting a fix that is continues to be an matter of debate. One little moment in the post-match press conference appeared significant. Asked about Pep Guardiola’s advice to do things his way, Alonso had permitted that notion to linger, answering: “I share a good rapport with Pep, we know each other well and he knows what he is talking about.”

A Foundation of Fight

Most importantly though, he could be satisfied that there was a spirit, a pushback. Madrid’s players had not given up during the game and after it they defended him. Part of it may have been for show, done out of obligation or self-preservation, but in this climate, it was meaningful. The intensity with which they played had been as well – even if there is a danger of the most elementary of expectations somehow being framed as a kind of success.

The previous day, Aurélien Tchouaméni had insisted the coach had a strategy, that their shortcomings were not his doing. “I think my colleague Aurélien put it perfectly in the press conference,” Raúl Asencio said after full-time. “The sole solution is [for] the players to alter the mindset. The attitude is the crucial element and today we have witnessed a difference.”

Jude Bellingham, pressed if they were supporting the coach, also responded quantitatively: “100%.”

“We’re still trying to solve it in the locker room,” he elaborated. “We know that the [outside] noise will not be productive so it is about trying to fix it in there.”

“Personally, I feel the coach has been superb. I individually have a strong relationship with him,” Bellingham added. “After the run of games where we were held a few, we had some honest conversations internally.”

“Everything passes in the end,” Alonso mused, perhaps referring as much about adversity as anything else.