Three games, three wins, ten goals, and one player at the centre of almost all of it. Bellingham under Mourinho looks like the Jude Bellingham of his first season at Real Madrid — the one who arrived in Spain in 2023 and spent an autumn scoring in every ground he visited. Two goals, two assists and a perfect start for Los Blancos: the early evidence of this partnership is about as good as it gets.
The numbers behind Bellingham under Mourinho
The England midfielder has produced four goal involvements in the opening three LaLiga rounds, as Madrid Universal noted this weekend, putting him among the division’s leading players for combined goals and assists.
The breakdown is neat. At Espanyol he scored Madrid’s first goal of the season in a 2-1 win and rattled the crossbar for good measure. Against Real Sociedad on the Bernabéu’s opening night he did not score at all, but laid on two goals in a 4-1 win and was among the best players on the pitch. Then came Sunday’s 4-0 against Málaga, where Mundo Deportivo reported he opened the scoring with a fine finish and had a hand in the second as Madrid put the game away with three goals in twelve first-half minutes.
The team numbers are stacking up alongside his. Ten goals in the first three LaLiga fixtures is Real Madrid’s best return at this stage in a decade, and Madrid Universal report that the perfect opening is a personal record for José Mourinho in the white shirt. It is early, and the fixture list has been kind. It is also exactly the start a new manager needs.
Back in his favourite position
The tactical explanation is the least complicated part. Mourinho settled the No.10 question before a ball was kicked this season, and we covered that call when he made it in Mourinho Settles It: Jude Bellingham Is Real Madrid’s No.10. Under Carlo Ancelotti and then Álvaro Arbeloa, Bellingham had been asked to do rather more of everything and rather less of the thing he is best at. Alfredo Relaño wrote in Marca on Tuesday morning under a headline that needs no translation: Bellingham is playing in his favourite position.
What that position gives him is arrival. Managing Madrid made the argument this week that Bellingham is unlike almost any modern No.10 — that where Kaká, Mesut Özil, Isco or Kevin De Bruyne made their impact in moments, Bellingham’s is a question of total involvement across ninety minutes. Whatever you make of the comparison, the description fits what Madridistas have been watching.
Mourinho, Jude and Denise
There is a human strand to this too. Mundo Deportivo told the story this week of how the Mourinho–Bellingham relationship began through Denise, Jude’s mother, a long-standing admirer of the Portuguese coach who has been celebrating her son’s goals from the stands again this season. Mourinho has always been a manager who works through people first and systems second; the fact that he had a way in before he had a tactic is unlikely to be a coincidence.
How far can it go?
Not everyone is being cautious. Raúl Varela, presenter of Marca’s La Tribu, went as far as anyone has: “Bellingham is the best player in LaLiga by quite some distance,” he said on Monday, adding that the sensations around Madrid at the start of Mourinho’s second spell are excellent.
The real examination starts now. Madrid have five games in twenty days in September, including the Champions League opener against Inter and the derby at the Metropolitano, as we set out in our guide to Real Madrid’s September fixtures. Three wins over Espanyol, Real Sociedad and Málaga do not settle anything. But a Bellingham in this mood, in the position he wants, with a manager who clearly enjoys him, is the single best thing Mourinho has going for him — and it makes the club’s contract renewal talks feel a good deal more urgent than they did in June.
