Jude Bellingham | Real Madrid player

Despite the Zidanesque comparisons, the oldest people in the place say that Don Alfredo has returned.
He is all over the field. Hunger to win.
He runs, scores, defends, looks for Joselu again and again after his shitty game and when he gets the assist he directs him to the public. Absolute leadership.
 
He's not really playing midfield to be fair. It's a pretty similar role to Kane.

He is playing midfield with freedom to attack. Today he had Joselu and Rodrygo in more advanced positions. I don't think that's Kane's role at all.

But if he is producing the goods it's not because of his role, it's because he is exceptional to a very marked extent.

A generational player.
 
Despite the Zidanesque comparisons, the oldest people in the place say that Don Alfredo has returned.
He is all over the field. Hunger to win.
He runs, scores, defends, looks for Joselu again and again after his shitty game and when he gets the assist he directs him to the public. Absolute leadership.
100%, the kid has so much to his game. He already seems like the captain, everything good from Madrid is going through him.

I never saw Don Alfredo play but I was watching Bellingham thinking, I've not seen a young player this complete. He has no weakness.
 
Despite the Zidanesque comparisons, the oldest people in the place say that Don Alfredo has returned.
He is all over the field. Hunger to win.
He runs, scores, defends, looks for Joselu again and again after his shitty game and when he gets the assist he directs him to the public. Absolute leadership.
I can't believe what I'm seeing in terms of ascendency, tbh. There's not a soul on here who saw this coming, except that Birmingham City fan who has been telling us Jude was god for about 3yrs now.

Di Stefano comparisons are the ultimate praise. Doesn't get any higher, but what he's doing certainly belongs in that realm, as crazy as it is to say. The guy has gone stratospheric and if this turns out to be his actual level, that's a permanent ballon d'Or contender in the making.
 
Every time I've seen him, he's doing everything from deep and then completing in the final stage. bit of Today was no different to that. Not sure I'd say that's similar to Kane.

Maybe Kane's too extreme, but there's certainly parallels, and they certainly like to operate in similar spaces, with pacier players in front of them generally. I certainly don't see him as a midfielder, at least not this year so far, outside of his England games, and while I don't watch every game of Madrids, not even close, his season average heatmap backs it up that he's far further up field than he's ever been for England on average or his entirety of his time at Dortmund.
 
If he keeps this up, Dortmund will sue us for theft.
 
Maybe Kane's too extreme, but there's certainly parallels, and they certainly like to operate in similar spaces, with pacier players in front of them generally. I certainly don't see him as a midfielder, at least not this year so far, outside of his England games, and while I don't watch every game of Madrids, not even close, his season average heatmap backs it up that he's far further up field than he's ever been for England on average or his entirety of his time at Dortmund.
I've not watched every game of his/Madrid's, but every time I've seen him, he's all over the pitch in a Rooney-esque manner; the Madrid fans on here are even taking it a step or three further and saying Di Stefano; that means Bellingham is orchestrating, conducting and concluding, which is in keeping with what my eyes keep telling me.

He's covering a very large surface area and being influential in each phase of the play. Kane is more about what he does once on the ball, be it pass or score, but Bellingham is doing more than that: pressures, pressing, tackling, running to and away from the ball. It's a lot. Really.
 
Maybe Kane's too extreme, but there's certainly parallels, and they certainly like to operate in similar spaces, with pacier players in front of them generally. I certainly don't see him as a midfielder, at least not this year so far, outside of his England games, and while I don't watch every game of Madrids, not even close, his season average heatmap backs it up that he's far further up field than he's ever been for England on average or his entirety of his time at Dortmund.
Madrid can afford to have him further up the pitch with Camavinga, Tchouameni,Valverde and Kroos behind him.
 
Madrid can afford to have him further up the pitch with Camavinga, Tchouameni,Valverde and Kroos behind him.

Absolutely, working to perfection (obviously!). It's only gonna be an issue for Southgate. Bellingham can seemingly flourish anywhere, but I'm not sure Southgates getting the best out of him.
 
He is the type of player we should have replaced Bruno with. Creates chances, goal scoring threat and still able to maintain possession and not give away the ball constantly. This is one of the reasons Real Madrid is a top team, and we're not.
 
He does some FIFA-esque shit :lol: Takes the ball deep on our own half and proceeds to dribble past the opposition all the way to the final third. Sets up others. Score a lot of course. Comes up with creative plays to create space.

And on top of all that he’ll track back for the full 90 minutes, launching himself in the way of players shooting on goal, slide tackling opponents, winning the ball back and proceeding to once again orchestrate another attack.

I never expected that from him.
 
He does some FIFA-esque shit :lol: Takes the ball deep on our own half and proceeds to dribble past the opposition all the way to the final third. Sets up others. Score a lot of course. Comes up with creative plays to create space.

And on top of all that he’ll track back for the full 90 minutes, launching himself in the way of players shooting on goal, slide tackling opponents, winning the ball back and proceeding to once again orchestrate another attack.

I never expected that from him.
It's bizarre. In United Parlance, Robbo or Rooney-esque, but even more consistent (thus far), which is why the Di Stefano talk makes sense (for now).

He's playing like an anime character.
 
Maybe Kane's too extreme, but there's certainly parallels, and they certainly like to operate in similar spaces, with pacier players in front of them generally. I certainly don't see him as a midfielder, at least not this year so far, outside of his England games, and while I don't watch every game of Madrids, not even close, his season average heatmap backs it up that he's far further up field than he's ever been for England on average or his entirety of his time at Dortmund.

This is Kane's heatmap this season
Screenshot-20231130-092733171-1.jpg


This is Bellingham's

Screenshot-20231130-092703990-1.jpg
 
What I love about this player is he plays like he hasn't been coached too much, because he doesn't need it. Gerrard, Scholes, Beckham, Rooney.. they all had this. They could play football, anywhere, any conditions. Natural football players. Bellingham isn't a Modric, Pogba or KDB in terms of technical ability.. but he is probably the most effective player in European football at the moment.

He reminds me of Ruud Gullit. A powerhouse, who can define games.. runs, headers, tackles, keeps things simple, and can be a match-winner. He's almost from a previous era. Wonderful to see.
 
I like the fact that he’s honest on the pitch. He knows he’s better than most players he faces and he embraces it.

He’s taken to Madrid much better than I expected, and looks completely at home on the pitch.
 
He played 61 games in his first 2 seasons for Dortmund and scored 4 in total. Just shows the transformation and change in role.
 
He is the type of player we should have replaced Bruno with. Creates chances, goal scoring threat and still able to maintain possession and not give away the ball constantly. This is one of the reasons Real Madrid is a top team, and we're not.

He would never have come here. We're not that attractive a place for serious players until we get our house in order.
 
What I love about this player is he plays like he hasn't been coached too much, because he doesn't need it. Gerrard, Scholes, Beckham, Rooney.. they all had this. They could play football, anywhere, any conditions. Natural football players. Bellingham isn't a Modric, Pogba or KDB in terms of technical ability.. but he is probably the most effective player in European football at the moment.

He reminds me of Ruud Gullit. A powerhouse, who can define games.. runs, headers, tackles, keeps things simple, and can be a match-winner. He's almost from a previous era. Wonderful to see.
He almost always looks like the best player on the pitch, like the star amongst stars and the one your eyes will be drawn to because something is always happening in and around his vicinity.

Despite being big and powerful etc. he is constantly able to ghost, undetected, into lethal positions and convert cleanly. His athleticism gets him from A to B [quickly], but his reading of the game and intuitive actions are as you say, instinctive and uncoachable, which is why he always looks like he has the element of class to his game, perhaps this is where some are seeing Zidane in his game - even though Zidane's finesse was mostly with the ball coming to him, rather than his ability to work off and away from it. It's obvious he's reading the play and his ability to influence it faster than everyone else is unparalleled, which is why this doesn't look like some kind of purple patch. If you're reading the play and using it to your advantage, there's no way to 'figure you out' as what's happening is dynamic and both proactive and reactive. This is also something that makes you think that Bellingham is the archetype of this modern attacking midfield role because aside from his own reading of play and intuitive actions, he is perfectly comfortable following instructions and the coachable things to the wire - he's not maverick and doing things that are problematic to the team schematic, he's doing what he's instructed to do and all the other stuff on top, which is why people are struggling to define him or put him in a box; he is two states at the same time, and that comes off as cartoon-like or something that is unsustainable as it must be a golden streak of form for it to make sense.

Ancelotti's vision has to be commended. He has seen something in the player and it turned him Ultra Instinct. To that point in time, Bellingham looked good and like a talent who would be top class once he reached his prime years, but now, he's taken such a leap in such a short time that his current trajectory can only be compared to all-timers, and as we've seen, Madridista's themselves have taken that to the Nth degree and gone straight to the top of the totem with who they're comparing him to at the moment. Even if you want to play it down, there's nowhere to go currently; he's hitting 1:1 goal rates and influencing games repeatedly, but what's more, teams are seeing more of him and still he's able to casually do his thing. What's standing out to me when I watch him is he isn't busting a gut or looking like someone playing out of their skin - everything looks smooth and in order, like there's even another gear in there. There really has to be a hope that injuries don't interject because it will be fascinating to see where his organic cap is. To my eyes, he's growing and evolving as the season plays out, so again the curiosity lies in what he'll look like come the business end of the season.

What's a genuine pity is that this kid has someone as incompetent as Southgate managing him for the NT. England should be studying what Madrid and Ancelotti are doing and trying their damnedest to create a modified version that can incorporate both he and Kane. This is a talismanic level player, and he should be treated as such. There's no exaggeration whatsoever in saying Bellingham-Kane should be the best attacking duo in international football. They're both on course to be contesting the ballon d'Or currently and are locks for top 5 performers in the world to this point in the season.
 
He played 61 games in his first 2 seasons for Dortmund and scored 4 in total. Just shows the transformation and change in role.
That he scores this many goals indeed is new for him. Even when he played the same position for Dortmund (which he rarely did), he assisted and didn't score himself.
 
15 goals and 6 assists in 16 games is crazy. Ballon d’Or winning form

He is not getting Ballon dor, unless England also does well, international football, right before the voting, will overshadow club football by a lot.
 
That's so wrong that I wonder if people only started to watch football in the last couple of years. He was massively talented and was already considered one of the best young talents when he was 17-18.
No matter how much you train, you will never become that good if you don't have the talent to back it up. His training / winning obsession was what kept him playing consistently at his full potential but he already had the talent to be one of the best.

Aye. Ronaldo without the insane work ethic is Nani. Who had a glittering career and wine everything.
 
Okay I might just be saying this because he scored a header yesterday, but anyone think he's a lot like Ballack?

He's basically what Scotty thinks he is.
 
Okay I might just be saying this because he scored a header yesterday, but anyone think he's a lot like Ballack?

He's basically what Scotty thinks he is.
Ballack definitely has been mentioned a few times in this thread as a comparison, and I think it's a good one
 
He is not getting Ballon dor, unless England also does well, international football, right before the voting, will overshadow club football by a lot.

They probably will though? Although England may well be England and feck it up somehow, the only team on paper in the Euros that you'd say is equal or better than them is France. Depending on draws, good chance of Real Madrid and England making at least the semi-finals of both this season, maybe further.
 
Ballack definitely has been mentioned a few times in this thread as a comparison, and I think it's a good one
Leverkusen Ballack was one of my favourite players. I don't think it's a good comparison. Ballack was a lot more static than Bellingham. Read play well did a lot of good things on and off the ball; was incredible in the air too, but he didn't glide like Bellingham does nor would he pop up being the ready-made part for whatever like Bellingham is doing. Bellingham is also connecting and finishing play from a lot deeper.

You'd also never have people cross-referencing Ballack with a Zidane or that kind of silky player, also.
 
They probably will though? Although England may well be England and feck it up somehow, the only team on paper in the Euros that you'd say is equal or better than them is France. Depending on draws, good chance of Real Madrid and England making at least the semi-finals of both this season, maybe further.

If France wins, Mbappe takes it, even if they somehow crash out of UCL in a couple of weeks.

Guy got a top 3 finish because of the world cup, while doing nothing of note at club level.
 
Leverkusen Ballack was one of my favourite players. I don't think it's a good comparison. Ballack was a lot more static than Bellingham. Read play well did a lot of good things on and off the ball; was incredible in the air too, but he didn't glide like Bellingham does nor would he pop up being the ready-made part for whatever like Bellingham is doing. Bellingham is also connecting and finishing play from a lot deeper.

You'd also never have people cross-referencing Ballack with a Zidane or that kind of silky player, also.
Yes and no... I do agree that Bellingham glides more, but both can/could play any position in the center of the pitch on a high level and score lots of crucial goals. How they do it does indeed not look the same, but still I think he is a closer comparison than Zidane for example, who didn't have the physical power and versatility Ballack and Bellingham have, but who played with more technical ability and elegance.
 
Despite the Zidanesque comparisons, the oldest people in the place say that Don Alfredo has returned.
He is all over the field. Hunger to win.
He runs, scores, defends, looks for Joselu again and again after his shitty game and when he gets the assist he directs him to the public. Absolute leadership.

Scarily mature for his age. Beyond his years. Balon dor winner next year if he keeps this up?
 
He is the type of player we should have replaced Bruno with. Creates chances, goal scoring threat and still able to maintain possession and not give away the ball constantly. This is one of the reasons Real Madrid is a top team, and we're not.

we tried to get Bellingham multiple times, he never fancied us.
 
Yes and no... I do agree that Bellingham glides more, but both can/could play any position in the center of the pitch on a high level and score lots of crucial goals. How they do it does indeed not look the same, but still I think he is a closer comparison than Zidane for example, who didn't have the physical power and versatility Ballack and Bellingham have, but who played with more technical ability and elegance.
The cross-reference with Ballack is in them both being eclectic, but Ballack's area of effectiveness or, I guess desire to play in is smaller than Bellingham's - Bellingham looks like he can convert any kind of chance in any kind of way required, and I'm not saying that exaggeratively as he has the mix of street football, finesse and athleticism plus the aforementioned power to have a massive array of finishes and assists. Someone compared him to Gullit in this sense further up the page and I think what's happening is everyone is recognising that this kid has a smorgasbord of finishes and accents to his game. Ballack wasn't like that; he'd power in a header, he could take shots on, but his range wasn't so vast. I'm not saying it as an insult either. Ballack, like Gullit, was, to this point in Jude's career, far, far better in the air, too, and a lot more probing plays were sent his way aerially - both Gullit and Ballack were absolutely dominant in the air and also in terms of positioning to receive the header. Madrid don't send crosses of that nature in much, to definitively know if Bellingham has that level in him, but to this point in time, there's no evidence to say that he has.

He ghosted a little, but most times met the ball with power and strength - opponents could see exactly where he was and what was about to happen, but could do nothing to stop him. I'm not saying he was all brute force because that wouldn't sound or be right, but he wasn't able to initiate a chain, be connective in it, suddenly disappear from it only to appear on the other side of the pitch to finish it off, apparently unbeknownst to those around him.

I think on one of those octagonal attribute markers, Ballack's would be more attenuated than Belligham's - in other words, Bellingham can do more and make it look seamless than Ballack, but on one of those marker things, Ballack's heading would be top percentile where as Bellingham's would currently sit at least two gradations less, so if we're saying out of a 100, Ballack's is at least a 90 and Bellingham's is in the 70's somewhere, I'd say Ballack was also outright stronger than Bellingham will perhaps ever be, but after that, I don't think there's an attribute he has over the kid. I think they both played to the remit of their physical gifts, too, but Bellingham has been blessed with more in that regard: more agile; better dribbler; a lot faster; quicker combination player; more mobile; more able to use his length because of his agility(if that makes sense - the amount of times he does that Haaland, stretchy thing of extended toe poke passes and shots others can't reach is becoming a trademark). It's hard to say one is more intelligent that the other because that's just about application and the ability to affect play and both have that in bucketloads.

What will also be telling is in how long Bellingham plays like he is doing. 'Leverkusen Ballack' was rather short lived when we consider his career as he never got near those heights at Chelsea and so we have the nearly-treble winner version of him to go by and then a slide as that level wasn't maintained.
 
I knew he was good and expected him to do well for Madrid but I have to admit I underrated him.
 
This is Kane's heatmap this season
Screenshot-20231130-092733171-1.jpg


This is Bellingham's

Screenshot-20231130-092703990-1.jpg

An fyi here, these are only actually their CL games heatmaps since you've pulled them from Sofascore. But even so if you switch it from 23/24 to 22/23 in the CL alone, you will see a massive in advancement in how Jude is playing for Real Madrid compared to previously any point in his career, anywhere. I don't expect Southgate to allow him such freedom, just as I wouldn't expect it if Benzema had stayed at RM... but he's absolutely proven he can

This is what his heatmap looked like when he was a midfielder with freedom roam - I think this is just positional pedantics really. It doesn't overly matter, I just think it's going to be tough to get him and Kane to work at a peak level together in the attacking sense. I'd agree with the Rooney and Di Stefano comparisons above, but they don't play for England.... so as I said, it's a bit extreme. Having him, Kane, and Foden is a great problem to have.... for a great manager, not Southgate,

OOosBT4.png
 
An fyi here, these are only actually their CL games heatmaps since you've pulled them from Sofascore. But even so if you switch it from 23/24 to 22/23 in the CL alone, you will see a massive in advancement in how Jude is playing for Real Madrid compared to previously any point in his career, anywhere. I don't expect Southgate to allow him such freedom, just as I wouldn't expect it if Benzema had stayed at RM... but he's absolutely proven he can

This is what his heatmap looked like when he was a midfielder with freedom roam - I think this is just positional pedantics really. It doesn't overly matter, I just think it's going to be tough to get him and Kane to work at a peak level together in the attacking sense. I'd agree with the Rooney and Di Stefano comparisons above, but they don't play for England.... so as I said, it's a bit extreme. Having him, Kane, and Foden is a great problem to have.... for a great manager, not Southgate,

OOosBT4.png
If Jude ends this season how he’s started it, playing as he is and Southgate doesn’t accommodate him with a similar role, he should be flayed and thrown in the Thames.
 
Stop comparing him with people. There isn't a single player in history who plays his position that I can remember doing the things he's doing, at this age.
 
Bellingham averages 49 passes per game in La Liga so I don’t think you can quite claim he is a playmaking extraordinaire, definitely more involved in the build up play than someone like Kane though so that isn’t the best comparison either.

He truly is a unique player and I think the closest player you can compare him to positionally and role wise is probably Griezmann, not quite a midfielder not quite a forward but does a mix of many roles.

Totti in yesteryear was probably of the same ilk role wise but pretty different stylistically.