Xabi Alonso Treading a Thin Path at Real Madrid Despite Dressing Room Backing.

No forward in Los Blancos' record books had endured without a goal for as such a duration as Rodrygo, but eventually he was released and he had a statement to deliver, performed for the cameras. The Brazilian, who had failed to score in nine months and was commencing only his fifth appearance this season, beat goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma to hand his team the advantage against Pep Guardiola's side. Then he turned and sprinted towards the sideline to hug Xabi Alonso, the boss on the edge for whom this could prove an even greater liberation.

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

By the time Rodrygo addressed the media, the lead had been lost, a setback following. City had reversed the score, going 2-1 ahead with “very little”, Alonso noted. That can happen when you’re in a “delicate” situation, he continued, but at least Madrid had fought back. This time, they could not complete a recovery. Endrick, on as a substitute having played very little all season, struck the bar in the dying moments.

A Reserved Sentence

“It proved insufficient,” Rodrygo conceded. The dilemma was whether it would be sufficient 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 portrayed in the media, and how it was perceived internally. “We demonstrated that we’re supporting the coach: we have played well, given 100%,” Courtois concluded. And so the axe was withheld, sentencing pending, with games against Alavés and Sevilla imminent.

A Different Type of Setback

Madrid had been defeated at home for the second match in four days, perpetuating their uninspiring streak to a mere pair of successes in eight, but this was a little different. This was a European powerhouse, rather than a La Liga opponent. Simplified, they had competed with intensity, the simplest and most damning accusation not aimed at them on this night. With a host of first-teamers out injured, they had lost only to a messy goal and a spot-kick, coming close to securing something at the final whistle. There were “many of very good things” about this performance, the head coach argued, and there could be “no blame” of his players, not this time.

The Fans' Mixed Reaction

That was not completely the case. There were spells in the closing 45 minutes, as irritation grew, when the Santiago Bernabéu had whistled. At full time, some of supporters had done so again, although there was likewise pockets of appreciation. But for the most part, there was a muted stream to the subway. “That’s normal, we comprehend it,” Rodrygo commented. Alonso remarked: “It’s nothing that is unprecedented before. And there were instances when they clapped too.”

Dressing Room Backing Stands Firm

“I feel the backing of the players,” Alonso said. And if he supported them, they backed him too, at least in front of the media. There has been a unification, talks: the coach had considered them, arguably more than they had accommodated him, meeting somewhere not exactly in the compromise.

Whether durable a solution that is is still an open question. One small incident in the after-game press conference seemed significant. Asked about Pep Guardiola’s counsel to follow his own path, Alonso had allowed that implication to linger, responding: “I have a good rapport with Pep, we understand each other well and he is aware of what he is talking about.”

A Starting Point of Resistance

Crucially though, he could be pleased that there was a spirit, a reaction. Madrid’s players had not abandoned their coach during the game and after it they defended him. Part of it may have been theatrical, done out of duty or mutual survival, but in this tense environment, it was meaningful. The intensity with which they played had been equally so – even if there is a temptation of the most basic of requirements somehow being framed as a type of achievement.

In the build-up, Aurélien Tchouaméni had argued the coach had a strategy, that their mistakes were not his responsibility. “In my view my colleague Aurélien said it in the press conference,” Raúl Asencio said post-match. “The key is [for] the players to change the approach. The attitude is the key thing and today we have seen a shift.”

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

“We’re still trying to solve it in the changing room,” he elaborated. “We understand that the [outside] speculation will not be productive so it is about striving to sort it out in there.”

“In my opinion the gaffer has been superb. I personally have a excellent connection with him,” Bellingham concluded. “Following the sequence of games where we tied a few, we had some honest conversations among ourselves.”

“Every situation passes in the end,” Alonso philosophized, perhaps referring as much about adversity as anything else.