Alonso Navigating a Thin Line at Real Madrid Even With Dressing Room Backing.

No offensive player in the club's record books had endured scoreless for as long as Rodrygo, but finally he was unleashed and he had a message to send, performed for the cameras. The Brazilian, who had failed to score in an extended drought and was beginning only his fifth game this campaign, beat custodian Gianluigi Donnarumma to hand his team the opening goal against the English champions. Then he turned and ran towards the bench to embrace Xabi Alonso, the manager in the spotlight for whom this could signal an more significant relief.

“It’s a challenging time for him, similar to how it is for us,” Rodrygo stated. “Things are not going our way and I sought to demonstrate everyone that we are together with the coach.”

By the time Rodrygo made his comments, the advantage had been surrendered, a setback ensuing. City had reversed the score, going 2-1 ahead with “minimal”, Alonso noted. That can transpire when you’re in a “fragile” situation, he added, but at least Madrid had reacted. On this occasion, they could not pull off a recovery. Endrick, brought on having played a handful of minutes all season, rattled the crossbar in the dying moments.

A Delayed Sentence

“The effort fell short,” Rodrygo said. The issue was whether it would be adequate for Alonso to hold onto his job. “We didn’t feel that [this was a trial of the coach],” goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois remarked, but that was how it had been framed publicly, and how it was perceived internally. “Our performance proved that we’re behind the manager: we have played well, provided 100%,” Courtois added. And so the final decision was withheld, any action suspended, with games against Alavés and Sevilla looming.

A Distinct Kind of Loss

Madrid had been overcome at home for the second occasion in four days, continuing their uninspiring streak to a mere pair of successes in eight, but this was a more respectable. This was the Premier League champions, not a domestic opponent. Stripped down, they had competed with intensity, the easiest and most harsh accusation not aimed at them this time. With a host of first-teamers out injured, they had lost only to a opportunistic strike and a spot-kick, nearly earning something at the final whistle. There were “a lot of very good things” about this display, the head coach said, and there could be “no criticism” of his players, not this time.

The Bernabéu's Mixed Reaction

That was not always the complete picture. There were moments in the latter period, as frustration grew, when the Santiago Bernabéu had jeered. At the conclusion, a portion of supporters had continued, although there was likewise sporadic clapping. But primarily, there was a subdued flow to the doors. “That’s normal, we accept it,” Rodrygo commented. Alonso added: “This is nothing that is unprecedented before. And there were times when they applauded too.”

Dressing Room Unity Is Strong

“I sense the backing of the players,” Alonso said. And if he stood by them, they backed him too, at least towards the media. There has been a coming together, discussions: the coach had considered them, perhaps more than they had adapted to him, reaching a point not exactly in the compromise.

How lasting a solution that is remains an matter of debate. One small incident 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 hang there, answering: “I share a good relationship with Pep, we know each other well and he knows what he is implying.”

A Foundation of Reaction

Crucially though, he could be content that there was a resistance, a response. Madrid’s players had not abandoned their coach during the game and after it they stood up for him. This support may have been performative, done out of obligation or mutual survival, but in this tense environment, it was important. The effort with which they played had been equally so – even if there is a danger of the most elementary of standards somehow being framed as a form of achievement.

Earlier, Aurélien Tchouaméni had stated firmly the coach had a strategy, that their failings were not his fault. “In my view my colleague Aurélien put it perfectly in the press conference,” Raúl Asencio said after full-time. “The only way is [for] the players to alter the attitude. The attitude is the key thing and today we have observed a shift.”

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

“We persist in attempting to solve it in the changing room,” he continued. “We understand that the [outside] chatter will not be productive so it is about trying to sort it out in there.”

“Personally, I feel the coach has been excellent. I individually have a strong relationship with him,” Bellingham stated. “Following the sequence of games where we drew a few, we had some really great conversations internally.”

“Every situation passes in the end,” Alonso philosophized, possibly talking as much about adversity as his own predicament.