2023-07-24 18:46:48
Nothing is by chance at Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid. And the fact that Jude Bellingham made his debut sharing the starting eleven with Toni Kroos in the historic Rose Bowl in Pasadena has been part of the Englishman’s adaptation plan to the team drawn up by the Italian. Jude had been full of praise for Toni Kroos during the work week in Valdebebas and Carletto spoke with the German so that he would tutor him when he landed in the white locker room.
Tutored by Kroos
“Tony is a teacher. One of the things that I have noticed is the detail in the pass. The ball goes where he wants. We’ve only been there for a week, so it’s normal that he’s still fine-tuning his touch, but for a person who has seen him from the outside, now seeing him up close, it’s a pleasure,” Bellingham said in his first interview as a white player for club television.
Hence, Ancelotti escorted him with Kroos, along with Camavinga and Valverde, in his debut as a white player. The Englishman left a pleasant impression, confirming that despite his age, 20 years old just a month ago, he is a footballer with charisma and personality on the field. Bellingham made 57 interventions, including 46 passes with an 87% success rate, two outstanding deliveries, three long balls that reached their destination, one shot, four dribbles, five wins, seven losses and one foul.
The seven losses actually hide what Carletto asked of him in his debut against Milan: impudence and personality. The Real Madrid coach dedicated a few words to the conclusion of the clash in Pasadena: “Jude’s position has been good and he has played a good game. The team must get used to the quality of him. We have to enjoy his arrival during the season”.
Bellingham played 10 in the diamond drawn by Ancelotti with Brahim and Joselu ahead. He was very active, moved judiciously and tried to speed up the plays as he approached the area. Owner of a powerful stride, he mixed well with Brahim, the other unbalancer that the coach included in the eleven. Jude appeared at the construction site, stepping judiciously and offering solutions to his teammates.
Bellingha, the ‘ten’ in the rhombus
Ancelotti was happy with his performance during the 60 minutes he was on the pitch: “He’s a fantastic player. Very important. A complete interior, who has a lot of intensity and moves very well without the ball. He is different from the other media we have. To find holes, add something else to this template that has an extraordinary quality. It’s rare to find players with that kind of quality. And it’s strange to find him at 20 years old. He has room to improve, but we are lucky to have him with us.” Regarding the tactical possibilities that he offers, Carlo was explicit: “For the system that we have used against Milan (4-4-2 in rhombus), he will be the number ‘ten’, if we play with a 4-3-3 it will be inside on the right. For him, the best thing is to be a ‘ten’ because he is close to the area. It depends on the system. We have to wait a bit to find out how it goes during the season.”
This wait has a justification, the possible arrival of Kylian Mbappé. Without the Frenchman on the squad, Madrid is orphaned in attack after the departure in recent years of Cristiano, Bale and Benzema. That’s why Ancelotti tries to turn this white swan born in Birmingham and forged in Dortmund into a shark that smells blood and shows its voracity. Madrid needs a goal and Carletto is reviewing all his slate to find it either with the appearances of midfielders like Valverde, scorer of two goals against Milan, on set pieces with the power of Rudiger, Joselu or Nacho, or by reconfiguring this elegant footballer who needs to show his fang in his appearances in the area.
While Ancelotti retrains him to look at goal instead of looking for the last pass when coming from behind, Bellingham is enjoying these early days as a Real Madrid player. “Every moment is a joy, it is something really fun. I am enjoying my teammates a lot and learning from the coaching staff”, confesses a Bellingham who guesses more things about Kaká than about Cunningham, Owen or McManaman.
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