Jude Bellingham made such an impact on former club Birmingham City, that when he departed for Borussia Dortmund in September 2020 they saw fit to retire his number 22 jersey. He was 17 years old. Since making the move to the German giants he has grown into an exceptional young player, and now at age 19 he is already one of the best players around in his position.
At this point in the summer the transfer rumour mill is at full flow, with players being linked to other clubs left, right and centre. Bellingham was linked heavily with a move to Liverpool earlier in the window, but Borussia Dortmund have held strong in their refusal to sell both Bellingham and Erling Haaland in the same window. The English midfielder has also been linked to pretty much every other big club in Europe, as you’d expect for someone of his quality at only 19 years old.
In this article, we will analyse Bellingham’s performances last season for Dortmund, and try to understand exactly why he is so sought after.
Contents
- Biography
- General Stats
- Positions
- Ball Progression
- Dribbling
- Assists
- Shooting
- Player Comparison — Jordan Henderson
- Conclusion
Biography
- Name: Jude Bellingham
- Age: 19
- Position: CM, DM, AM
- Nationality: England
- Club: Borussia Dortmund
- Contract: Expires June 2025
- Former Clubs: Birmingham City
As we have already mentioned, despite his tender age Bellingham is already an outstanding player, and when you watch him it is very easy to forget just how young he is. He already has all the physical attributes required to hold his own in a division like the Bundesliga, which is played at an extremely high pace that is probably only exceeded by the English Premier League.
He is a true box-to-box player, and has all the technical attributes you would want in a midfielder. He has excellent close control, making him an effective pass receiver as well as a brilliant dribbler. His passing is very good too, and he also provides a strong goal threat in the opposition box.
Defensively he is very good, with the positional awareness to defend well in a low or mid-block, but also the stamina and work rate to press the opposition high up the pitch.
General Stats
The pizza chart above shows a general scout report for Jude Bellingham, with percentile ranks against other midfielders in the top-5 European leagues in a variety of metrics. We can use this report to analyse Bellingham’s performance, and gain some insight into his style of play.
What instantly stands out is his performance in the attacking metrics. He scores exceptionally well across the board in this area, and is in the the top 10% for all but one metric (non-penalty goals). He creates a lot of shots, gets a lot of assists, takes a lot of shots on himself and picks up goals to go with it.
Looking at the possession stats, his attacking prowess again stands out with the number of touches he takes in the opposition penalty area (97th percentile). Bellingham is a player who loves to run with the ball, and this is reflected in both the number of dribbles he completes and the progressive carries that he makes. Being a true box-to-box midfielder, he also likes to make deep runs and join the forward line as Dortmund look to progress the ball, and scores very highly for progressive passes received (96th percentile). His passing numbers are less strong, although he is above average for progressive passes, pass completion percentage and total passes attempted.
Defensively, Bellingham frequently presses the opposition, and also makes a lot of blocks. Standing at 6' 1" tall he is frequently involved in aerial duels, and wins just under half of them (49%).
Positions
At Borussia Dortmund, Jude Bellingham has been utilised in a variety of positions and roles by the three managers he has had (Lucien Favre, Edin Terzić and Marco Rose).
Most commonly he has operated on the left of a two-man midfield in a 4–2–3–1 formation, usually alongside one of Axel Witsel, Emre Can or Mahmoud Dahoud. However, he has also been used on the left of a 3-man midfield, in an attacking-midfield role or even on out wide from time to time.
He is an extremely versatile player, whose skillset makes him capable of adapting to any role the team may require. That being said, there is no doubt he is at his best in an all-action box-to-box role in the centre of the park.
He has been widely connected with a move to Liverpool, and his skillset would make him the ideal replacement for the Reds’ captain Jordan Henderson in Jürgen Klopp’s 4–3–3 (more on that later).
Ball Progression
The ability to move the ball towards goal is a key component of any midfielders game. The chart above combines progressive passes and progressive carries, enabling us to understand how midfielders in the top-5 leagues look to progress the ball.
Bellingham is above average in both metrics, though he makes fewer progressive passes than two of his Dortmund teammates, Mahmoud Dahoud and Emre Can (Can plays a lot of minutes at centre-half, which may influence these numbers).
He also performs exceptionally well for progressive passes received (96th percentile). Bellingham will often look to make very direct runs whilst Dortmund are looking to move into the final third, sometimes joining the forward line or even moving in behind the opposition defence. This element of his game leads to him often receiving the ball in advanced areas, hence the high volume of progressive passes received.
Dribbling
The chart above combines total dribbles attempted with dribble completion percentage, and enables us to understand which players like to run with the ball, and how good they are at it.
Bellingham has excellent close control, and frequently looks to run with the ball up the pitch, and in the above chart he is well above the average for dribbles attempted. In many situations, this ball-carrying ability enables Bellingham to carry the ball forward, draw opposition players towards him, before releasing teammates in space.
However, it is in some ways a case of a players strength also being their weakness. At times, Bellingham will hold onto the ball too long and end up getting dispossessed, and I think an area he can work on is choosing the right moment to release the ball to a teammate in a better position.
Assists
The chart above combines expected assists with actual assists in the same chart, and gives us an insight into the creativity of midfielders in the top 5 leagues.
Jude Bellingham appears well above average in both metrics. He had 8 assists in the Bundesliga last year, outperforming his xA by +3.4 assists (makes sense when Erling Haaland is your striker).
Shooting
The above image, taken from understat.com, shows all of the shots Jude Bellingham took last season in the Bundesliga, with his goals being shown in green. He took a total of 44 shots, hit the target 27% of the time, and scored 3 goals. His npxG was 4.2, so Bellingham underperformed by -1.2 goals.
As a true box-to-box midfielder, Bellingham is a threat in the oppositions box and takes a lot of shots (90th percentile for total shots). His average shot comes form 18 yards out, and is an area I think he can improve on. Bellingham takes a lot of shots from outside the box, but has never actually scored a goal with a long shot in the Bundesliga. He has room to work on improving his decision making and keep hold of the ball rather than conceding possession with a shot that is unlikely to go in.
The chart above combines shots per 90 with npxG per shot. It enables us to gain an insight into not only how frequently midfielders in the top 5 leagues get themselves into shooting positions, but also how likely they are to score with the shots they do take.
When looking at his shot map, we suggested that whilst Bellingham is an excellent attacking threat he could at times make better decisions on when to retain possession as opposed to taking a shot on. However, the data suggests that his decision making is pretty good, with Bellingham performing well in both metrics in the chart above. The fact that he is well above the average for npxG per shot suggests that when compared to his peers Bellingham’s choice of shot is good, although I still believe there is still room for further improvement.
Player Comparison — Jordan Henderson
The chart above combines the player profiles of both Jude Bellingham and Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson. A move to Liverpool has often been suggested as a logical next step for Bellingham, and in this section we will look to compare the performances of the two players.
Firstly, looking at the attacking metrics, we see that Bellingham offers an upgrade over Henderson in every metric on the chart. In particular, he offers a far greater goal threat, outperforming Henderson massively in terms of npG, npxG and total shots. Creatively their performance is much closer together, although Bellingham still has the edge.
Turning to the possession stats, Bellingham’s tendency to run with the ball is demonstrated by his dominance in terms of dribbles completed, whilst also outperforming Henderson in progressive carries. One area where Henderson does perform better is passing. Their pass completion percentages are very similar, but Henderson attempts significantly more passes per 90, whilst also making more progressive passes.
They perform similarly for progressive passes received, and it’s an area of Bellingham’s game that would lend itself well to playing as the right-sided 8 in a Jürgen Klopp midfield. When Liverpool attack, they will often end up in a shape similar to that shown in the image below, with Henderson frequently ending up in a highly advanced position from which he will look to rotate with Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold. If Bellingham is to replace Henderson in this role, his ability to receive the ball in advanced positions will be hugely important.
Conclusion
Overall, Jude Bellingham is absolutely one of the hottest prospects in European football right now, and is undoubtedly ready to make the step up to a club challenging for Champions League honours. With his contract expiring in 2025, the summer transfer window of 2023 will likely see Borussia Dortmund look to cash in on their prized asset, and Bellingham will have his pick of the best clubs around the world.
As a Liverpool fan, I hope he chooses us!
