Ancelotti not bothered with Bellingham scoreless season
Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti said he isn’t bothered with Jude Bellingham remaining scoreless this season.
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Ancelotti doesn’t mind Bellingham remaining scoreless
Bellingham has yet to find the net in nine games for Madrid this season.
Unlike last season, when the England midfielder scored 23 goals across all competitions, his role has shifted following the arrival of Kylian Mbappe.
In Madrid’s 2-1 LaLiga win at Celta Vigo on Saturday, Bellingham started on the right side of the attack.
Ahead of Madrid’s Champions League game against Borussia Dortmund, Ancelotti expressed satisfaction with the 21-year-old’s contributions beyond scoring.
“We’re satisfied with his work, I’m very satisfied,” Ancelotti said. “He works a lot, he’s always present, he competes, he fights, he sacrifices himself.
The Italian boss added that this season’s struggles are not related to Bellingham’s lack of goals.
“It’s true he hasn’t scored the goals he scored last year, but the surprise isn’t this year, the surprise was last year, when he scored lots of goals which nobody expected and helped us a lot. The problem this year isn’t that we’re lacking Bellingham’s goals,” he said.
“We’ve always scored goals, and we’ll always score, because we have talented players up front. For us, in this moment, the work he’s doing is more important than the goals the scored last year.”
El Clasico preparations
Madrid host Barcelona in LaLiga in El Clasico on Saturday.
Los Blancos remain three points behind their rival.
Bellingham delivered a spectacular performance in April’s El Clasico, scoring a dramatic stoppage-time winner in the 91st minute to secure a 3-2 victory.
Despite not losing in LaLiga this season, their victories weren’t always convincing — including their recent match against Celta Vigo.
“We aren’t 100%, obviously,” Ancelotti said. “We’ve got good results, but we have to improve in terms of our play, and little by little, we will… We have to defend better, as we did last year. Right now the team is less solid, and we’re working on that.”