"He's becoming irrelevant." This is how Paco González, from news network COPE, assesses Jude Bellingham's performance this season.
Last year, at this time, he had scored 10 goals. This season he hasn't met the goal yet. Maybe last year's performance was unreal, but it's surprising that he hasn't scored a single goal this season.
"Ancelotti Doesn't Know Where to Put Bellingham"
Kylian Mbappé's inclusion in the team doesn't justify Bellingham's forgetting to score. And that worries Ancelotti, who faces the big week against Dortmund and Barça at the Bernabéu with many doubts.
Bellingham has delayed his position but continues to play close to the opposite goal and gets into the box, as always.
Paco González has harshly criticized him for his game in Vigo on Tiempo de Juego on COPE: "He did nothing. The best player of the first third of last season is becoming irrelevant."
The COPE journalist added that Ancelotti has a problem with Bellingham: "I think he's going around in circles with Ancelotti. He can't find him. He doesn't know where to put him and how to make things work out."
Bellingham has provided two assists but hasn't been able to score in 9 official matches. He's clearly showing signs of anxiety. In Vigo he showed signs of helplessness and anger with himself.
Decisive in Last Season's Classics
Ancelotti is confident that he can bring back the Bellingham from last season for next Saturday's classic. Bellingham scored and was decisive in both of last season's clasico matches.
At Montjuic he scored a brace that gave Real Madrid victory (1-2). At Bernabéu, he changed the score 3-2 in the 91st minute. At the end of last season he scored 23 goals in 42 official matches. Out of those, 9 were in LaLiga and 4 in the Champions League, adding 13 assists.
Last season, Bellingham standed out in a special way during the decisive matches. That is what Ancelotti hopes will happen this week, against Borussia Dortmund and FC Barcelona.