How Jude Bellingham Plays 3 Positions At The Same Time
Italy couldn't cope with England's Jude Bellingham, but it's no surprise when he's effectively 3 players at once...
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00:00 Jude Bellingham is going to cost some team a frankly eye-watering amount of money this
00:08 summer, but unless you're a season ticket holder in Das Bundesliga and you see him play
00:13 pretty much every week, you might be asking yourself the question, is he worth it?
00:16 And if you all just join me on the pitch here for a moment, very conveniently for me, who
00:21 wanted to do a video on him this week, last night's England game kinda proved that he
00:25 is.
00:26 Alright, so a little bit of housekeeping, this is England as they lined up against Italy
00:28 last night, this is Jude Bellingham on the left of a midfield three, but weirdly when
00:33 the team news dropped a lot of people reported it as like that, they had it as a 4-2-3-1
00:37 with Bellingham just off Kane and the double pivot of Rice and Phillips there, but that's
00:42 not what it was at all, they were a three, sort of.
00:45 Declan Rice was definitely in front of the back four, but England weirdly, when Italy
00:48 were in possession, went with this really aggressive 4-1-4-1, like you can see here
00:52 Italy are doing the build-up on the edge of their own box and this is how they chose to
00:56 press with Phillips and Bellingham pretty much in a direct line with Sakha and Grealish.
01:00 That's not interesting for this video, it's just interesting in the context of Garry Southgate
01:04 because he never normally does that.
01:06 But I digress, we're here to talk about Bellingham who was indeed playing on the left of a midfield
01:10 three, look, I'll prove it, here he is receiving the ball from Luke Shaw in this wide position,
01:14 here he is driving the ball forward down that left-hand channel, getting involved with Jack
01:18 Grealish, getting involved with Harry Kane, creating these nice little passing triangles
01:22 and that's kinda where he does his best work for England.
01:24 Do you remember the Senegal game at the World Cup where he was really, really good, well
01:27 he was playing in that position then, he liked being in that hand side of the pitch, here's
01:30 his heat map, look, I can prove it again.
01:32 But dear friends, I'm going to get straight to the point in this video, which I know very
01:36 unlike me, Jude Bellingham was playing here, yes, he was on the left of a midfield three,
01:41 but Jude Bellingham basically played the role of about four or five different midfielders
01:46 last night.
01:47 For about half an hour, that first half an hour, it was incredible.
01:50 Now you know that people love to come up with these fancy sounding words for all the different
01:53 things midfielders can be good at, he's a mazella, he's a regista, etc, etc, but if
01:58 we're just, if we can all just be honest with each other for a minute, midfielders can basically
02:01 be broken down into three things.
02:03 There are the midfielders who do their best work on the pitch in this area, there are
02:07 midfielders who do their best work on the pitch in this area, and there are midfielders
02:11 who do their best work on the pitch in this area.
02:14 You know, you watch your football team and there are midfielders in your team who reassure
02:18 you when they're in this area and there are midfielders in your team who excite you when
02:23 they're in this area.
02:24 That's, that's its most simplest form.
02:26 Most simplest.
02:27 Good English.
02:28 And the thing you need to understand about Jude Bellingham, right, is that he is one
02:32 of the best players in the world in this position, but he's also one of the best players in the
02:36 world in this position, and he's also, conveniently, one of the best players in the world in this
02:41 position.
02:42 He literally can play almost any midfield role at just an elite level.
02:47 And that's just what he did last night for England as and when situations required him
02:50 to do it.
02:51 He was sitting in front of the back four, but here, for example, is Bellingham winning
02:55 the ball back in that defensive third.
02:57 He was popping up all over the pitch, but his main responsibilities were on the left-hand
03:00 side.
03:01 Here he is driving in field to ultimately win a foul in that area.
03:03 Oh, wow, would you look at that?
03:04 Now he's the most advanced midfielder in a central area.
03:06 He's getting right up alongside Kane to give the defence something else to think about,
03:10 to give himself other options to help create chances.
03:12 Here he is being really aggressive in the final third as well.
03:14 This one doesn't look particularly good, but he wins that ball back, which allows Saka
03:18 to have that shot on goal.
03:19 He'll do it himself as well.
03:20 Here he is in a similar position, receiving the ball and thinking, "Ooh, I'll just have
03:23 a go myself."
03:24 And that leads to the corner, which England score their first goal from.
03:27 And tired of doing all that, here he is as the most forward player in the entire team,
03:32 an inch away from getting onto Harry Kane's cross and scoring himself.
03:35 Like the guy literally does it all and does it all in every game.
03:40 Like I know graphs and stats are an incredibly boring way to look at football, but I just
03:43 want you to look at these graphs and stats and just take a moment, just breathe it in.
03:48 Remember, if you ever smoked, remember the first time you smoked and it just kind of
03:50 completely filled your entire being and you thought you were going to die.
03:53 Take this graph in like that.
03:55 Now what do you have to do to be a good defensive midfielder?
03:57 You've got to be good at the tackles, you've got to be good at the interceptions, you've
03:59 got to be good at the blocks, that kind of thing.
04:01 Well, for those, Bellingham ranks in the top 25, 15-ish and 5% in all of Europe.
04:08 That makes him easily one of the best defensive midfielders in the world.
04:11 What do you want a really good modern centre midfielder to do?
04:13 You want them to progress the ball with passes, you want to progress the ball with runs, you
04:17 want them to be receiving the ball, you want them to get loads of touches.
04:20 Well, for every single one of those stats, Bellingham ranks in the top 10% almost in
04:26 all of Europe.
04:27 That makes him easily one of the best central midfielders in the world.
04:31 And what do you want out of your attacking midfielders?
04:33 They've got to create chances, they've got to make things happen, they've got to provide
04:36 assists, they've got to score goals, etc.
04:38 Well, you're not going to believe this.
04:40 Top 10% for shot creating actions and non-penalty goals, top 20% for expected assists and key
04:45 passes and all of that, he's again one of the best attacking midfielders in the world.
04:50 He's all three of these players.
04:51 And if there's anybody out there going like, "Yeah, well, but German League isn't it?
04:55 I'm not really that impressed by that."
04:56 That's the last 365 days, buddy, so it includes the World Cup.
05:01 Is the World Cup good?
05:02 Do you think maybe there's some good players at the World Cup?
05:04 You think that's actually pretty impressive then?
05:07 Oh, and just on something that can't be measured by stats or graphs, here he is receiving the
05:11 ball in what I would honestly describe as one of the worst possible positions to ever
05:15 receive a ball.
05:17 Three Italy players around you, a pass with a little bit too much vim on it and it's bouncing
05:20 up in the air.
05:21 You lose this and they are in.
05:23 Yeah, but doesn't panic though, just stays composed, pops it over the top of one of their
05:26 heads, into Luke Shaw's feet and England are away.
05:28 That is nuts.
05:29 That's not normal at 19.
05:30 That's not a normal level of composure.
05:32 It's not a normal level of technical ability.
05:34 It's not a normal level of decision making.
05:36 It is not a normal level of having your shit together.
05:39 I would in a blind panic have booted that ball, clear up the other end of the pitch
05:43 and received a small round of applause from the defenders for playing safe.
05:47 And the mad thing about that is a lot of professional footballers would probably do the same.
05:51 He's 19!
05:52 These are his numbers and he's 19!
05:54 So theoretically they're only going to improve as he goes on with his career and that's just,
05:58 that's insane.
05:59 And you always hear things about like, oh England need to build a team around their
06:03 best player.
06:04 You heard it about Rooney, you heard it about Gerrard, you heard it about Kane, etc.
06:07 Genuinely, England, the last thing they should do is build a team around Jude Bellingham.
06:12 They just shouldn't do that.
06:13 And the reason for that is, which Jude Bellingham do you build it around?
06:15 Like if you decide you're going to play Bellingham in front of the back four because he's so
06:18 good at recoveries and instigating counter attacks, okay cool, but then you restrict
06:22 yourself from the Bellingham that can play absolutely everywhere, that can drive the
06:25 ball forward, that can get it in the number 10 positions, that can score goals, that can
06:28 create chances.
06:29 So why would you do that?
06:30 And likewise, if you decide you're going to play him as a 10 because he's so good on
06:32 the ball, then you deny yourself the brilliance he has in front of his own box and how good
06:36 he will be at recovering the ball.
06:38 So build it around another player who's got one very good skill set, not like your Swiss
06:42 army knife.
06:43 So why is Jude Bellingham going to be worth so much money in the summer?
06:45 Well, do you want to know why he wears the number 22?
06:48 Just to quickly go back to our incredibly oversimplified "Midfielders are good here,
06:52 all midfielders are good here, all midfielders are good here" comparison.
06:55 Traditionally across Europe, you associate the defensive midfielder with wearing the
06:58 number 4, you take your all-action centre midfielder to wear the number 8, and your
07:02 most creative force in the midfield, he tends to get the number 10.
07:05 Can we, are you with me now?
07:06 4 + 8 + 10 is 22.
07:08 Bellingham wears that number because he plays all three of these positions better than almost
07:13 anyone else in the world.
07:14 Now I know what you're thinking, is that actually true?
07:16 And well, I don't know.
07:19 What I do know though is that someone's going to have to spend about 100 to 200 million
07:22 to prize him away from Borussia Dortmund this summer, and for whoever that is, it will be
07:26 money well spent.
07:27 Certainly won't be me though, I'll tell you that, because if I had 150 million, what would
07:30 I spend it on?
07:33 Like, 1 of 40k?
07:34 And what would that get me?
07:36 Like, three boxes and a couple of paints?
07:37 So no, won't be me.
07:38 Liverpool, Chelsea, Real Madrid, one of them perhaps, not me.
07:39 If you've enjoyed this Bellingham 101, please do let us know in the comments, and of course
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07:51 Until next time though, which I think will probably be just after the Ukraine game, so
07:54 let's hope something interesting happens there, I've been Adam Cleary, this has been
07:57 442, I do dearly love you all, I'll see you soon, bye!
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