Alonso Navigating a Precarious Path at the Bernabéu Despite Squad Backing.

No attacker in Los Blancos' history had gone failing to find the net for as such a duration as Rodrygo, but at last he was unleashed and he had a message to send, acted out for the cameras. The Brazilian, who had failed to score in almost a year and was starting only his fifth game this campaign, beat shot-stopper Gianluigi Donnarumma to hand his team the opening goal against Manchester City. Then he spun and ran towards the touchline to hug Xabi Alonso, the coach under pressure for whom this could prove an profound release.

“This is a difficult period for him, like it is for us,” Rodrygo said. “Results are not going our way and I aimed to demonstrate people that we are as one with the coach.”

By the time Rodrygo addressed the media, the advantage had been lost, a defeat taking its place. City had come back, going 2-1 ahead with “not much”, Alonso noted. That can occur when you’re in a “delicate” condition, he continued, but at least Madrid had responded. Ultimately, they could not engineer a turnaround. Endrick, on as a substitute having played a handful of minutes all season, hit the woodwork in the closing stages.

A Delayed Judgment

“It wasn’t enough,” Rodrygo admitted. The question was whether it would be sufficient for Alonso to hold onto his position. “We didn't view it as [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 felt privately. “Our performance proved that we’re supporting the coach: we have performed creditably, provided 100%,” Courtois added. And so the final decision was withheld, consequences suspended, with matches against Alavés and Sevilla imminent.

A More Credible Type of Loss

Madrid had been overcome at home for the second match in four days, continuing their recent run to two wins in eight, but this seemed a more respectable. This was the Premier League champions, rather than a lesser opponent. Simplified, they had actually run, the easiest and most critical accusation not aimed at them on this night. With a host of first-teamers out injured, they had lost only to a opportunistic strike and a spot-kick, coming close to salvaging something at the final whistle. There were “numerous of very good things” about this showing, the head coach argued, and there could be “no blame” of his players, tonight.

The Fans' Ambivalent Reception

That was not always the case. There were moments in the closing 45 minutes, as discontent grew, when the Santiago Bernabéu had jeered. At the conclusion, a portion of supporters had repeated that, although there was also pockets of appreciation. But mostly, there was a quiet stream to the exits. “That’s normal, we understand it,” Rodrygo said. Alonso added: “It’s nothing that doesn't occur before. And there were instances when they clapped too.”

Squad Backing Is Strong

“I have 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 accommodated them, maybe more than they had accommodated him, reaching somewhere not exactly in the compromise.

The longevity of a solution that is is still an open question. One little moment in the after-game press conference seemed significant. Asked about Pep Guardiola’s counsel to follow his own path, Alonso had permitted that notion to linger, answering: “I share a good connection with Pep, we understand each other well and he is aware of what he is talking about.”

A Starting Point of Resistance

Most importantly though, he could be pleased that there was a resistance, a reaction. Madrid’s players had not abandoned their coach during the game and after it they publicly backed him. Part of it may have been for show, done out of duty or self-preservation, but in this context, it was significant. The commitment with which they played had been as well – even if there is a temptation of the most elementary of requirements somehow being framed as a type of success.

Earlier, Aurélien Tchouaméni had argued the coach had a plan, that their failings were not his responsibility. “In my view my teammate Aurélien nailed it in the press conference,” Raúl Asencio said post-match. “The only way is [for] the players to change the approach. The attitude is the linchpin and today we have observed a shift.”

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

“We persist in attempting to work it out in the changing room,” he said. “We understand that the [outside] noise will not be helpful so it is about striving to sort it out in there.”

“I think the coach has been superb. I myself have a great rapport with him,” Bellingham added. “Following the run of games where we drew a few, we had some really great conversations internally.”

“All things ends in the end,” Alonso mused, possibly speaking as much about poor form as anything else.