Bellingham’s revival with Real Madrid: An example for Mbappe
Jude Bellingham scored his first goal of the season and made an important contribution to Real Madrid, an example for Kylian Mbappe to follow.
First goal
After 13 official matches of the 2024/25 season, the goal finally came to Bellingham. Along with that, the classic “Hey Jude” by The Beatles also rang out in the Bernabeu stands.
Passion and desire were shown. Bellingham was the undisputed leader of the team last season, but became a typical victim this season due to the appearance of Kylian Mbappe.
Carlo Ancelotti, because of Mbappe and the loss of Toni Kroos, pulled Bellingham down to play midfield. He fought more, further from the goal.
In the most recent match against Osasuna in round 13 of La Liga, when Mbappe’s performance did not improve, Ancelotti decided to give the stage back to Jude: bringing him back to his familiar position last season.
There, on the left wing of the 4-4-2 formation and with freedom to move, Bellingham had his best match since the beginning of the season. He shone in both the attacking and defensive aspects.
“The fact that Jude scored is just a small detail, in which his game was very good in both aspects, attacking and defending”, Carletto praised after Real Madrid won 4-0 against Osasuna.
Bellingham was the one who sparked the rain of goals with an assist for Vinicius to open the scoring. He then scored himself before the Silver Ball 2024 completed his hat-trick.
The value of sacrifice
“Last season I scored a lot of goals but my role has changed,” Bellingham said when asked about his first goal, compared to 13 goals at the same stage last season.
“I do other things in the back. Maybe I’m less selfish,” Jude assessed. “My goal is to help the team in any way I can.”
In the win over Osasuna, the England international was among the most outstanding in all statistics: 2 shots (after Vini and Mbappe), 2 chances created (as many as 2 strikers), 44 passes with a success rate of 93.6% (highest), 2 crosses into the box, 3 successful dribbles…
All these stats were achieved by Bellingham in 75 minutes, before he was replaced by Arda Guler.
What’s more, Jude left the impression of being a complete player, just like his journey to glory with Real Madrid last season, factors that ensured he won the 2024 Bronze Ball (26 out of 100 journalists ranked him above Vini),
In El Clasico, Bellingham played as a pure central midfielder, and this was a failure for both him and Real Madrid. He misunderstood the role and dropped too low.
The 0-4 loss to Barcelona was the moment Bellingham hit rock. Ancelotti realized that and really adjusted to help him come back, as well as help himself.
“Bellingham has some similarities with Kaka, yes. There are not many differences between them,” the Italian coach assessed.
He explained: “In recent years, the game has changed, when now the players in the midfield position are much stronger. 20 years ago, in that position, talent was more important than strength.”
From his argument, the rare strategist who has maintained success for nearly 3 decades is helping to combine Bellingham into all in one: talent, strength and effort.
After Bellingham’s efforts, Mbappe needs to take that as an example to adapt to the Madrid environment and find the best version of himself.