This time last year, Jude Bellingham was arguably Real Madrid’s best player, and was dominating the headlines, following his game-winning brace against Barcelona at Montjuic. However the fast pace of football has left him out of position, and with his nose out of joint.
This week there were numerous headlines and a strong reaction to Rodri Hernandez’s Ballon d’Or victory, with Real Madrid calling it disrespectful that Vinicius Junior had not won the award. The word that came from upon high was that if the Brazilian had not won it, then it should of been Dani Carvajal. Bellingham would finish ahead of the right-back, but there was barely a suggestion from Los Blancos that he should be in contention.
Diario AS explain that Bellingham is miffed with the hierarchy of the club for completely forgetting about him as a potential candidate, as they put their campaign apparatus behind Vinicius.
At the same time, Bellingham has gone from Real Madrid’s most dangerous weapon to a work-horse, sacrificed on the right-hand side to deal with Alejandro Balde during El Clasico. As demonstrated by his heatmap from the game at Montjuic last year, he was involved more on the right, but was heavily involved, but aside from a few defensive interventions, the game passed the England star by.
Bellingham has been the chief victim of the arrival of Kylian Mbappe this summer. While much of the talk was about how Mbappe and Vinicius would work together, it is the Brazilian that has maintained his position, with Mbappe playing through the middle. Despite Carlo Ancelotti saying early on that he would keep Bellingham in an advanced role, as time has passed, the 21-year-old has been relegated to a secondary thought in the tactical schemes.