Bellingham has scored NO goals this season - so what's happening?

You don't need a degree in mathematics to notice a disparity in Jude Bellingham's numbers.

This time last season: 10 goals in 11 games. This season: zero goals in nine games. Something is off. Or is it?

Spanish scribes have been quick to detract from the 21-year-old. He has been 'totally overshadowed' by his team-mates and has 'declined', apparently. Bellingham recently combined with Adidas to bring out signature Predator boots, but he has become the prey. No longer untouchable.

Meanwhile, Carlo Ancelotti has shielded his star, saying he has become 'more important' than last year and that he is 'very satisfied' with the Englishman. He isn't the type to bluster. 

So, what's going on? On Tuesday night Real Madrid host Borussia Dortmund, their slain foes of last season's Champions League final and the club where Bellingham catapulted his reputation. It's an apt moment to reflect.

The truth is that Bellingham's role has changed, and that he is no longer the focal point of this star-studded cornucopia. 

In the summer Madrid ended their long-distance dalliance with Kylian Mbappe and tempted him from the banks of the River Seine with a signing-on fee of £85.6million and a club-high £12.8m net salary - admittedly a wage lower than his one at PSG.

Alongside image rights from commercial deals, Mbappe's income won't be far off the annual revenue Madrid drew from the Santiago Bernabeu pre-renovation.  

When you invest in a player so forcefully, the landscape on the pitch changes. And so you get a line-up like the one for the UEFA Super Cup final against Atalanta, which saw Mbappe up front flanked by Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo. 

Bellingham, deployed for large chunks of last season as a number 10 behind the striker, had to settle for the left portion of a midfield three. And that's basically where he's been shunted all season, out on the left of a three or four, lingering in the shadow of Mbappe and Vini and doing the dirty work. 

He knew it halfway through the opening LaLiga game of the season against Mallorca. 'Finish the attacks because the running back is f***ing hard,' he told the front trident. 

That frustration has continued. In the 2-1 win over Celta Vigo on Sunday, he gestured furiously and kicked the turf after Vinicius Jr chose to shoot rather than put it on a plate for him. Behold: the illustration of his diminished stature. Ancelotti has had to pour freezing water on rumours of a rift. 

Of course, Bellingham would sometimes operate out on the flanks last season, but he had much more freedom to roam across the final third, rather than sitting tight and waiting to respond to threats.

Madrid are vulnerable to counter-attacks now that they've added Mbappe, whose languid approach to defending frustrated manager Luis Enrique. 'The day you cannot attack, you need to be the greatest defending player of all time. That's a leader. That's Michael Jordan,' Enrique said as he called out Mbappe in front of the squad. 

Bellingham does have help in the Madrid midfield, but he is often the first line of defence if an attack falters. It's not all about box-crashing runs this season, but anticipating problems. Putting out fires before one is lit. 

This season his tackles per game average is up to three from 1.74, his interceptions rising to 1.22 from 0.70. He has already managed 32 tackles and 13 interceptions. Compare that with 19 and 16 for Declan Rice, or 21 and 16 for Moises Caicedo, and you see how his role is as more as a midfield suppressor, more Dortmund-era Bellingham. 

'He works very hard, he competes, fights, sacrifices himself. The truth is that he has not scored as many goals as last year, but the surprise is not this year, the surprise was last year,' said Ancelotti.

'Last year he scored a load of goals, that nobody expected. Now, he is helping a lot still. The problem this year is not the lack of Bellingham’s goals, we have always scored goals and we always will, because we have a great amount of talent up front. For us, right now, the work he is doing is much more important.'

Against Celta, Ancelotti even moved Bellingham to the right side because he felt that had been more exposed in recent times. His priorities have changed. 

Ancelotti doesn't want him in the box as much. He average just 3.67 touches in the opponents' area per game this season, a sizeable dip on 5.26.

This switch has been in progress for a while. Bellingham's attacking numbers have been down since January and he admitted in April that his role had changed. 

'I think I’m doing a bit more for my team, which I don’t mind doing, but maybe I lose a little bit of an impact,' he said. 'There’ll be criticism, I’ll take that on the chin and try to prove myself.' Prescient words. 

Nevertheless, all this talk of heatmaps and stats doesn't get to the root of the intangibles. Bellingham doesn't quite look the same when you watch him. You could tell as much at the Euros. 

It's not like he's playing as a goalkeeper. He still has the chance to get into the box. Bellingham is still having 1.53 shots per game - not as many as last season but enough to make a dent. 

The problem is that he's blasting off efforts from miles out. His average shot distance this season is 19.8 yards, which places him outside the area. He pulled off some wonder goals last campaign, including that screamer against Barcelona, but without his regular diet of arriving at one of the posts to tap it in first time, his contribution is going to suffer. 

There's also a fitness angle to this. Bellingham dislocated his shoulder last November and the club imported an orthosis, a protection device, from America. He asked to stop using it as he felt it limited his breathing and mobility, as per The Athletic, but he has now got protection on again. 

To fix the shoulder fully, Bellingham would need surgery, but that would put him out for two to three months, according to The Athletic's sources. 

You've also got to give Bellingham some leniency due to fatigue. At the Euros, he complained of being 'absolutely dead', which sounds quite a prohibitive circumstance to be dealing with. 

After the final defeat against Spain, he elaborated: 'It’s so tough with crazy schedules and then coming together for the end of the season for one last tournament. It’s difficult on the body – mentally and physically you are exhausted. But for our country we wanted to give everything.'

PFA chief Maheta Molango told Mail Sport over the summer that Bellingham had played around five times the number of minutes that David Beckham had at the same age. He made 55 appearances for club and country last season.

You can't blame him for feeling burned out, but unfortunately the demands are only going to get worse, so it's a case of sucking it up. 

And that's the attitude that must define his next chapter at Los Blancos. 

Ancelotti has openly admitted that he doesn't want Mbappe expending energy on pressing, so good luck getting help out of him. Vultures from Saudi Arabia would happily carry Vini away but he's tied down until 2027 with a £1billion release clause. No more spats with him. 

He'll always have critics. Launching his own YouTube channel with a documentary about himself and modelling tighty-greyies for Kim Kardashian will only fuel accusations of egotism. 

But isn't self-sacrifice and altriusm at the altar of stardom what made him as a footballer? He's always been a battler.

As he said at Dortmund: 'My game reflects my origins. It’s a working-class style, because my game is based on energy and hard work.'