The Spanish language doesn’t really have a word for Jude Bellingham.
A plain, central midfielder — mediocentro — doesn’t do justice to his all-action, multi-faceted role.
Medio volante — the midfield steering wheel — hints at his complete, side-to-side coverage of the pitch, but is more about tempo-setting and control than the offensive destruction that Bellingham brings.
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Todocampista is closer — a midfielder who does it all — but still, there is something missing. A jack of all trades is across too many things to also score 15 goals in 17 games.
As well as being La Liga’s most relentless runner, one of its best dribblers, passers, ball-winners and leaders, Bellingham is also the best at a very specific move; lurking in the midfield shadows before charging into the penalty area.
That’s why his Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti went with a slightly unusual descriptor.
“He’s spectacular in getting into the box; he comes into the box like a motorbike.”
It still doesn’t encompass the player in his entirety, but Ancelotti’s words of praise at a recent press conference do highlight the speed and directness of the forward runs propelling Bellingham’s unprecedented goalscoring.
He is shooting more than ever before, and a newfound positional freedom is allowing him to funnel his attacking movements into the most dangerous areas. As a result, his average shot distance has plummeted this season following his summer move to Real Madrid, while his expected goals (xG) per shot figure only continues to rise — pointing to a higher average quality of his efforts on goal.
“In the last few months, I have been really working on my timing getting into the box,” the 20-year-old said in October. “And as I am arriving, I am arriving with a big hunger.”
A 30-yard screamer in the Clasico that month aside, all of Bellingham’s goals have come from inside the penalty area, with 12 of those being struck within the width of the posts.
The numbers tally with the tactical and psychological change.
While his box-crashing runs are focused and incisive, it is the sheer variety of his off-ball movement that makes Bellingham so difficult to pin down.
Using SkillCorner’s Game Intelligence model, which extracts tracking data from broadcast footage, we can contextualise the type of movements that he makes; whether he is darting towards goal, dropping into deeper spaces to pick up the ball, or pulling wide to create space for his team-mates.
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As the chart below illustrates, Bellingham’s three most common runs — accounting for 58 per cent of his total off-ball movements — are attacking ones; running towards goal while “ahead of the ball”, into space “in behind” the last defensive line, and into the penalty area as a potential “cross receiver”.
The remaining 42 per cent of Bellingham’s runs are auxiliary, designed to help his team-mates and free up space, but he possesses the energy to turn selfless movement into danger at any time, something that helps him catch his opponents off guard.
A fine example came in the 3-1 win at Almeria on August 19, a game in which Bellingham scored twice.
The move begins with the Englishman lurking between the opposition’s back five and midfield. He drops out to receive a pass from Rodrygo, allowing the Brazilian to attack the space he vacates, before side-stepping even deeper to make a simple passing option.
As the ball is moving out wide, he senses the opportunity to ghost past Largie Ramazani in midfield, who has been pulled out of shape by Bellingham’s movement and too slow to follow him back in.
The timing to curve his run around Sergio Akieme and meet Dani Carvajal’s cross is perfect, allowing him to glance a header over the goalkeeper and into the net.
Note the separation between his initial marker in frame one and frame four.
More noticeable in the simpler runs, it is Bellingham’s sense of timing that allows him to drift into valuable spaces undetected.
See below against Osasuna on October 7, where play builds down the right and Bellingham picks his moment to tear towards the penalty area as his marker, Aimar Oroz, looks towards the ball.
When he checks back, Bellingham is gone.
Oroz cannot recover, and Bellingham is free to receive the spin pass from Carvajal, before taking the ball onto his left foot and scoring.
It was much the same against Napoli in Madrid’s Champions League home match on November 29.
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Again lurking elusively between the defensive and midfield lines, he ducks out of Juan Jesus’ line of sight while the ball makes its way to David Alaba’s left boot…
…creating a slight headstart that allows him to meet Alaba’s perfect cross unchallenged.
Later in the second half, Bellingham would career forward from midfield to meet another speared pass by Carvajal.
Positioned on the defender’s blindside once more, it is all about sheer speed and flawless technique this time, two attributes that make him such a valuable player on the transition.
Not just able to reach the pass, he brings the ball down while running at full pace before drawing a fine save from Alex Meret.
In the absence of a consistent, central presence at the top of the team, the full-back to an onrushing Bellingham run is quickly becoming a trademark Real Madrid move.
Even with Joselu on the pitch, as above, Bellingham’s positional awareness and energy to attack the penalty area is always an extra thorn in the defensive team’s side.
In addition to his obvious talents with the ball, Bellingham’s innate instinct when it comes to choosing his moments means that the chances will keep on coming.
A box-crasher with and without the ball, he is very difficult to stop, particularly when those engines start to rev.
(Top photo: Burak Akbulut/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
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