Jude Bellingham reborn: How Real Madrid got Euros ‘scapegoat’ firing again in time to take down Liverpool
It had taken a long time, but finally on November 9, as a chorus of “Hey Jude” echoed around the Santiago Bernabeu, Bellingham was back in his prime and back in the groove.
Real Madrid supporters aren’t always the most inventive when it comes to songs for players, but the Beatles will always be big in Spain and the anthem ‘la-la-la-la-la’ was adopted almost as easily last season as the English midfielder adapted to Real Madrid.
Hearing it again in that match against Osasuna after his first goal of the season, a successful international break with England, and then a second goal in two games for Madrid on Sunday – it’s no wonder that, as he admitted last night, the smile is back on his face.
He was honored in Madrid on Monday night when the Spanish players’ union AFE named him last season’s player for those 19 goals and five assists as Real Madrid won the league.
So why did it take him until November to score his first goal of the season? The feeling that he returned from the European Championship in Germany feeling like the scapegoat for England’s eventual failure to peak in the tournament appears to have played a role, but that was not the whole story.
Kylian Mbappe had arrived at his club in the summer, Toni Kroos had left and coach Carlo Ancelotti’s subsequent tactical tombola had not stopped spinning since, leaving Bellingham the biggest casualty.
Jude Bellingham has not reached the heights he achieved during his debut season at Real Madrid
The Madrid star, pictured with Harry Kane (left), was made a scapegoat for England’s European Championship
Real Madrid travel to Anfield on Wednesday to face Liverpool in the Champions League
The England midfielder scored 14 goals in his first 15 games last season, taking advantage of playing at the top of midfield with Kroos behind him and Vinicius and Rodrygo stretching the opposition in front of him.
Even when Ancelotti tinkered with it and had him on the left of a midfield four, he was still allowed to move into that central attacking space and finished as the club’s top scorer.
But at the start of the season the focus was on getting the best out of Mbappe, not upsetting Vinicius and making up for Kroos’ departure. Building things around Bellingham no longer seemed like Ancelotti’s priority.
October was a particularly gloomy month. On 19 October, he was deployed on the right of a front three against Celta Vigo as Ancelotti experimented with a 5-2-3 in an unconvincing 2-1 win.
Three days later he was on the right of a midfield three against Borussia Dortmund as Madrid gifted the Germans a two-goal start before coming back to win 5–2.
Then came the first ‘El Clasico’ of the season on October 26 and a new low. He was again on the right, this time in a fourth in midfield, and he spent much of the first half tracking the runs of Barcelona’s left-back Alejandro Balde.
There was no license to make the explosive runs from deep that would have exposed a high defensive line, allowing Barcelona to catch Madrid’s attackers offside 12 times in that match.
Bellingham cut a forlorn and deeply frustrated figure as he left the Bernabeu that evening after the humbling 4-0 draw. It had been his worst day since joining the club and he had failed to use his strengths to prevent it.
Bellingham’s form has dipped since Real Madrid captured Kylian Mbappe last summer
But the midfielder has scored twice in his last two games, netting against Leganes on Sunday
Madrid could use it if Bellingham continues his scoring run now that Vinicius Jr. is injured
Two days before the team’s next league match, and after another defeat, this time against Milan, Ancelotti held a crisis summit with his players at their training ground in Valdebebas. Something had to change.
Writer and sports journalist Manuel Jabois wrote this week in El Pais: ‘It is debatable who is the best player in the current Madrid team, but the one who makes everyone play better is undoubtedly Jude Bellingham.’ Ancelotti has come to the same conclusion.
The team had to start pressing with intensity higher up the pitch.
Without Kroos there to build from deep, they had to start moving more in the opponent’s half by winning the ball back faster and closer to the opponent’s goal. Bellingham was key to that.
He needed to be able to operate in the space behind the striker, whether that was at the top of a midfield diamond or on the left, but with the freedom to make more of the runs that destroyed so many teams last season.
That weekend against Osasuna, his heat map was dragged back to old territory. Madrid produced their best performance of the season, scoring his first goal of the campaign in the 4–0 win, which provoked the subsequent serenade from the Bernabéu.
From his usual number 10 position for England, he was excellent in international matches against Greece and Ireland, and last Sunday he was Madrid’s man-of-the-match with his second goal in two games as Leganes were beaten 3-0 .
He also provoked the opening goal by robbing possession on the edge of the opponent’s area, allowing Vinicius to cross for Mbappé to score – a goal and an assist for Madrid’s ‘best’ players, but a crucial role for their most influential players.
Carlo Ancelotti still wants Bellingham to be part of a midfield four that protects the defence
Bellingham is still considered Real Madrid’s most important player ahead of the trip to Anfield
When Madrid defend in their own half, Ancelotti still wants Bellingham to be part of a midfield four that protects the defence, usually on the left.
But when they have the ball, or in the early stages of the game when they lose the ball in the opponent’s half, he wants him to lead from the front.
All this means he arrives at Anfield this season in his best form yet, and on a run of two goals in two games for Madrid.
They would need him to continue that scoring run tonight in Vinicius’ absence.
The Brazilian winger has scored 25 goals in the Champions League and five against Liverpool. He got the winner against them in the 2022 final and scored two at Anfield in a 5-2 win for Real Madrid a year later.
His injury and Trent Alexander-Arnold’s fitness issues mean Real Madrid supporters won’t be able to see their top scorer play against the player they expect the club to sign this summer.
Real Madrid will not make a move for the Liverpool full-back in January despite first-choice Dani Carvajal being ruled out for the rest of the season with a cruciate ligament tear. But he remains the player they want next summer.
He complies with the transfer policy rule of asking anyone over the age of 25 to complete their contract and join the club without a transfer fee. There have been suggestions that Tottenham’s Pedro Porro or Bayer Leverkusen’s Jeremy Frimpong are being looked at as alternatives, but both players are under contract until 2028 and the Spanish club will not pay £50m if the English option is a free.
Liverpool star Trent Alexander-Arnold has been heavily linked with a move to the Bernabeu
Bellingham has debunked the myth that an English footballer cannot adapt to a new life abroad
There has also been a major change at the club when it comes to the wisdom of signing English players. It has been more than 20 years since three players – David Beckham, Jonathan Woodgate and Michael Owen – were in the Madrid squad and it is remembered as a period when the club found itself in the wilderness of the Champions League.
Bellingham won the Champions League in his first season, as well as a league title in which he managed to score the winning goals in both matches against Barcelona, but he has also shown them a different side to the English footballer abroad, making the myth that she cannot adapt to a new environment.
The 21-year-old England midfield was perhaps too flexible for his own good at the start of the season, when he was brought back to accommodate the top-heavy new Real Madrid XI.
He now leads from the front again. Just in time to see if he can elicit a ‘Hey Jude’ rendition from Madrid’s traveling support at Anfield.