How Jude Bellingham can emulate Real Madrid hero Zinedine Zidane after £115m transfer if he improves one key area

JUDE BELLINGHAM is wearing theNo 5 at Real Madrid, just like Zinedine Zidane during his time at the club.

And away to Athletic Bilbao at the San Mames Stadium on Saturday, the Englishman will be looking to deliver the type of performance on his La Liga debut that Zidane would have been proud of.

GettyJude Bellingham is set to make his competitive debut for Real Madrid following his move from Borussia Dortmund[/caption]

GettyHe will rep the No.5 shirt for Real Madrid[/caption]

AFPFollowing in the footsteps of Zinedine Zidane[/caption]

How Bellingham compares to Zidane pre-arrival at Madrid

Bellingham, 20, would be happy if achieves half of what the three-times world player of the year Frenchman managed during his blistering career.

While the £115million arrival from Dortmund may not yet have the technique which was gifted to Zidane, Bellingham already arrives in Spain as a more versatile player compared to Zidane when he was the same age.

That is why until now, with Birmingham, Dortmund and also England, Bellingham wore the No 22.

In his youth days at Birmingham, he played in the No 4, No 8 and No 10 midfield positions so he added those figures together to get the number for his shirt.

Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti certainly loves the fact Bellingham played in various positions at his previous two clubs.

During the first pre-season game against Milan, his debut, he was employed as an attacking midfielder in a new 4-3-1-2 system.

Ancelotti “For the system we used today, he will be the No 10, if we play with a 4-3-3 he will be inside on the right.

“For him, the best thing is to be a ’10’ because he is close to the area.

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“It depends on the system. We have to wait a bit to find out how it goes during the season.”

But because it has worked well, during all four pre-season matches, Bellingham featured in that same position as a No 10 at the tip of a diamond midfield formation.

In the final warm-up game, a 3-1 loss to Juventus on August 3, Bellingham played in that attacking position with Toni Kroos at the base of the diamond and Eduardo Camavinga and Luka Modric at the sides. Rodrygo and Joselu played up front.

In the 3-0 loss to Barcelona five days earlier, Bellingham was again in the advanced role with Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo as the front two.

GettyManager Carlo Ancelotti is a big fan of Bellingham’s utility[/caption]

In midfield, Aurelien Tchouameni was in the more defensive role with Camavinga and Federico Valverde completing the diamond.

Bellingham has played well in pre-season but he will be expected to maintain those standards throughout the season in front of the world’s most spoilt and expectant fanbase.

During last season at Dortmund, Bellingham was given the chance to get forward more and he scored eight times in the Bundesliga and four in the Champions League.

Equally, he has found the net just once in 24 senior appearances for England.

Potentially, Real could find themselves with an issue up front as they are about to start a season without a high-profile forward.

GettyHe has already had a taste of the El Classico fixture[/caption]

Karim Benzema, the team’s best player the last few seasons, has moved to Saudi Arabia and the club have been unable to sign Kylian Mbappe, even though he looks set to join next summer.

For now, Real have only signed Joselu on a loan from Espanyol so it looks as though Vinicius and Rodrygo will be starting up front.

So a few metres behind them will be Bellingham who could find himself under an enormous amount of pressure to contribute on the goalscoring front.

But like he has done throughout his young career, Bellingham is likely to take everything in his stride.

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