Carlo Ancelotti: Work Jude Bellingham does more important than last year’s goals

Carlo Ancelotti said the work Jude Bellingham is doing for Real Madrid is “more important” than the glut of goals that marked his debut season at the Bernabeu.

The England international is yet to get off the mark this campaign despite making nine appearances in all competitions.

It is in stark contrast to last season when he hit 23 in 42 games en route to Real winning both LaLiga and the Champions League.

His only goal so far this season came in England’s 2-1 defeat against Greece at Wembley in the Nations League.

“We’re happy with his work because he works hard for the team and he always competes, fights and gives his all,” said Ancelotti ahead of Real’s Champions League game at home against Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday, a rematch of last season’s final.

“He hasn’t scored the goals he did last season, but the surprise was last year when he scored a lot of goals that nobody expected.

“We’ve always scored goals and we’re going to score them because we’ve got very talented players. The work he’s doing is more important now than the goals he scored last year.”

Real have made a strong start domestically despite Bellingham’s lack of goals and are unbeaten, sitting second behind early LaLiga leaders Barcelona.

However, they were beaten by Lille before the international break, leaving them with work to do in Europe against the Bundesliga side.

Ancelotti deployed Bellingham on the right-hand side of his attack during Saturday’s 2-1 win against Celta Vigo, a change from his usual place on the left behind Kylian Mbappe.

Explaining the decision, the manager said: “He just changed his position the other day and played on the right to look for more space to get into the second line.

“We’re going to continue along those lines because the left is busier this year because Mbappe likes to play there and combine with Vinicius Jr.

“We think with Bellingham and with Rodrygo we can be as effective as we are on the left wing.”

Dortmund boss Nuri Sahin, who made the decision for his side to train in Germany rather than the Bernabeu the day before the match, called for his players to show courage in order to avenge their 2-0 defeat to Real at Wembley last season.

“It’s only possible as a collective against this team,” he said. “The lads know what we have planned tomorrow. We want to be brave and build on the last two games in the Champions League.

“We trained in Dortmund because we have so many away games in the coming days. We wanted to give the boys as much time as possible in their familiar surroundings.”