Jude Bellingham- The Young and Hot Prospect

Jude Victor William Bellingham is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund and the England national team.

Bellingham joined Birmingham City as an under-8, became the club’s youngest ever first-team player when he made his senior debut in August 2019, at the age of 16 years, 38 days,[3] and played regularly during the 2019–20 season. He joined Borussia Dortmund in July 2020, and in his first competitive match became their youngest ever goalscorer.

Bellingham made his debut on 14 September 2020, starting the first match of Dortmund’s 2020–21 season against third-tier MSV Duisburg in the DFB-Pokal, aged 17 years, 77 days. After half an hour, he scored the second goal in a 5–0 win, becoming the club’s youngest goalscorer in the DFB-Pokal, taking six days off Giovanni Reyna’s record, as well as their youngest scorer in any competitive match, breaking Nuri Şahin’s record by five days. Five days later, he marked his league debut with the assist for Reyna’s opening goal in a 3–0 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach, and was named as Bundesliga Rookie of the Month for September. When Bellingham faced Lazio in the group stage on 20 October, aged 17 years and 113 days, he became the youngest Englishman to start a Champions League match, breaking the record previously set by Phil Foden.

Jude Bellingham has already scored 2 goals in 13 matches played. He has also registered 5 assists to his name.

We can see his majority of goals has been scored from the left side. He will of course be scoring more goals as the season progresses.

Ball Touches

His movements off the ball are quick and dynamic allowing him to receive and turn in tight area’s around the pitch, adding an attacking threat from deep positions. He links play very well both vertically and horizontally, aiming to get himself on the ball as much as possible with a high work rate to become the linchpin of every possession for his side.

He moves the ball quickly and accurately through the midfield, patiently waiting for the right time to unleash a penetrating ball into the final third for Dortmund’s ruthless front three. He has already 14 key passes in 13 matches played.

We can see he ranks only 0.75 on ball carrying actions compared to Tomas Ostrak who ranks 7.5.

In Ball Progression we can see that Jude ranks at the lower quadrant with 4 compared to Tomas Ostrak at 30.

If we see his attacking display, we can see that he ranks higher on shot creation (shots) and goal creation(dribbling0. However, he ranks decent in assists and shots on Target.

Bellingham possesses’ a tenacious defensive mindset in transition, matching the high-velocity style engraved within Dortmund’s tactical philosophies. Bellingham’s acceleration often means he beats opposition players to the loose scraps in 50/50 situations, and his general high-intensity play sees the Englishman often turnover possession for his side through relentless nibbling tackles,mirrored in his 119 ball recoveries so far in 2021/22 through 1041 minutes played.

Bellingham possesses traits of a modern-day Regista dropping deep into a 6 role to receive from the backline before looking to play precise forward passes.

With recent rumors of him being linked to Liverpool, we compare him to other liverpool players to see how well he will be slotted into the first team.

We have compared him with Naby Keita, we can see that both have scored 2 goals each,however jude has 5 assists to his name while Naby has only 1. His spG is 1.7 compared to Keita’s at 1.1.Jude has won 1.3 aerial duels,while Keita has only won 0.1.

If we compare his defensive actions we can see Keita has more tackles i.e at 2.3 compared to Jude’s 1.5. However Jude ranks high on intercepting the ball at 1.2 compared to Keita’s measly 0.6. Jude has 1.2 clearance compared to none by Keita.

If we see their offensive side to the game we can see that Jude ranks 1.4 in key passes compared to Keita’s 0.7. Jude ranks high on dribbling with 2.1 compared to Keita’s 0.3. Bellingham has high rate of getting dispossessed on the ball with 2.1 compared to Keita’s 0.4.

If we compare their passings we can see that in long balls he ranks 1.4 compared to Keita’s 0.6. In defense splitting passes i.e through balls Jude ranks 0.1 compared to Keita’s none.

Jude Bellingham is just 18 years old taking the world by storm. During the summer transfer window there would be a plethora of clubs after his signature, with Liverpool currently leading the race. To whichever team he goes to he will be a valuable asset. With age on his side he can be a world class midfielder in the next 5 years or so.

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• Created By Manabendra Pal
• Twitter: @Manav57502667