Jude Bellingham’s new role after Kylian Mbappe’s arrival at Real Madrid
The big new arrival in LaLiga ahead of 2024/25 didn’t arrive for a huge fee, wasn’t a European champion this summer and wasn’t anything like a surprise move.
That’s not to say he’s not an expensive, serial-winner who makes headlines almost every week, of course, it’s just that everybody knew Kylian Mbappé was Real Madrid-bound a year ago, which includes his new head coach Carlo Ancelotti and all his new teammates at the Santiago Bernabéu. While most would have been delighted to hear of his confirmed arrival, one who might have had mixed feelings was Rodrygo – for many onlookers, the one who would be dropped to make room for the Frenchman. It hasn’t worked out that way so far.
Indeed, Rodrygo is pretty much playing exactly as he was last season; perhaps slightly wider, perhaps slightly more a support player in the attacking line – but it’s early days in the campaign and he’s still right there in the starting lineup under Carlo Ancelotti.
Instead, the player who has seen his role altered after Mbappé’s arrival has been Jude Bellingham, one of the biggest successes of last term following his move from Borussia Dortmund and one of the top scorers in the Spanish top flight.
The English attacker midfielder spent most of last year at the tip of diamond, making late runs into box, showing his capacity to find the back of the net and underlining that as good as he is on the ball, he also has the game intelligence and timing in his movement to be an enormous asset out of possession, too.
But with Mbappé in from PSG, he has slotted in at centre-forward. The effective two-pronged front line of Rodrygo and Vinícius Jr. is therefore very slightly split, with a No. 9 alongside them instead of a No. 10 driving from behind.
In turn, Bellingham spent the first couple of matches of the campaign back in a more conventional midfield role: the space on the pitch, if not the tactical approach, occupied by the now-retired Toni Kroos last season. Given the massive impact Bellingham enjoyed in the first half of last term, there could easily be questions of whether that’s the right move or not – but then, factoring in Bellingham’s form in front of goal notably dipped in the latter part of the campaign, there’s also plenty of reason to consider that a switch back into a more central role is a good thing for both individual and team.
After all, for Real Madrid to keep winning, they have to keep opponents guessing, keep getting the best out of all their attackers and keep developing the young talents they have.
An injury derailed that change for a few games, but in the Champions League win over Stuttgart he returned – in the same role once more.
And so Ancelotti has him in the centre, where he can still certainly be the most offensive-minded of the trio in white, but with more responsibility on his shoulders too to help Los Blancos dominate, to find creativity in his game to be the supply line for those higher upfield, and to be as close to consistent in his passing range as his predecessor in that left-sided role was.
Quite aside from anything else, Bellingham is already noticing the difference in the physical demands of his altered role. In the opener at Mallorca, he was seen on camera at half-time talking to the front three – Mbappé in particular – urging them to take their chances in the final third because “running back is extremely hard”, to somewhat paraphrase his exact words in a less-sweary manner.
The sample size is of course extremely small, and a hard summer at Euro 2024 plus a truncated preseason means we might not be seeing Bellingham at his physical peak just yet. Yet it’s already apparent that there is at least one possible change in his game as a knock-on effect from Mbappé’s entrance: fewer opportunities to get shots away.
There are only so many a team can take in a game, after all, and now there are three forwards ahead of him queuing up to do so – last season he averaged very nearly 2.5 shots per 90 minutes in LaLiga. Against Mallorca, he didn’t have a shot. Now, no conclusions being jumped to: he did get three away against Atalanta in the Super Cup a few days earlier, but it was a glorified friendly match for both clubs, with the Italian outfit looking seriously undercooked at times in that game.
To truly see if shifting deeper is having that impact on Bellingham – if he’s becoming more facilitator than taker – we’ll need to see the next half-dozen competitive outings and take the start of an assessment from there. Again, this could be an Ancelotti instruction. This could be a part-season ploy, leaving attention on the forwards before Bellingham explodes into attacking action as the unwatched extra man at key times. Or it could simply be the team re-gelling, rediscovering its own buildup processes with a new focal point in the side. Against Stuttgart he had just one effort, and that blocked.
Last term along with his 2.44 shots per 90 minutes, Bellingham was yielding 0.43 xG per 90, but only 0.17xA from 1.86 chances created each 90.
Against Atalanta and Mallorca, those tables were also turned around: five chances created, 18 passes into the final third across those two fixtures. His xA in the league encounter was 0.19. And despite no shots, he still managed five touches of the ball in the Mallorca penalty box, so getting into advanced areas was far from a blocked avenue for him. In Europe, it was two shots teed up and four touches in the box, but in his first game back he was obviously below his peak and subbed on 80 minutes before the result was sewn up.
One issue Real do need to sort out, though, is the overload on the left: all four of Bellingham, Mbappé, Vinícius Jr. and Rodrygo have a tendency to drift into the channel, which is great for potential combination play and overloads against the opposition, but potentially less-useful for team structure, patterns of play involving the rest of the pitch and recovery runs, of which Bellingham – as a midfielder now – has the greatest responsibility to make happen.
Upcoming games against Espanyol and Alavés should represent chances to hone those tactics, secure more cohesion in that vastly talented attack – and discover whether Bellingham is truly tasked with a significantly altered role this term.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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