Jude Bellingham as Mourinho's New Lampard?

Steve McManaman believes Jude Bellingham could yet become José Mourinho’s new Frank Lampard at Real Madrid – but only if the tactical pieces fall into place around Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior.

Speaking to GOAL on behalf of Disney+, with Mourinho’s first La Liga game back in charge to be shown on ESPN as Real visit Espanyol on Saturday, the former Madrid midfielder weighed up how Bellingham’s role may evolve under the Portuguese coach.

Can Bellingham be Mourinho’s new Lampard?

Asked whether Bellingham can be “Lampard Mark II” in a more advanced, goal-scoring role, McManaman pointed to the Englishman’s debut campaign in Spain.

“I think he did that in his first year didn’t he,” McManaman said, noting how Bellingham thrived as a late-arriving attacking force. But he also underlined how the last two seasons have complicated that picture: the year before last, Bellingham dropped a little deeper; last season, he “struggled for goals”.

The arrival of Mbappé has shifted the landscape again.

“I think with the introduction of Kylian, his role changed,” McManaman explained. Whether Mourinho restores Bellingham to that Lampard-style, penalty-box-crashing position remains the big unknown. “Whether Jose will want to play that role this year, we'll have to wait and see.”

The squeeze at the top

For McManaman, the real puzzle is not just Bellingham, but how Mourinho fits all of his attacking stars into a coherent structure.

“It seems that he wants to play Kylian, Vini Junior and [Yan] Diomande,” he said. “That's going to be the big point in the end, whether the space is there for Jude to make that front four.”

In La Liga, McManaman expects Mourinho will sometimes get away with unleashing all four.

“I think in La Liga, in certain games he'll get away with it, that front four, and he'll be driving forward and he'll certainly score goals Jude because that's what he wants to do and he loves to attack those avenues arriving late,” he said. The opportunity is there for Bellingham to keep raiding into the box – if Mourinho dares to load the pitch with that much attacking talent.

Mbappé, Vinícius and the left-side battle

The real “conundrum”, as McManaman puts it, is how Mbappé and Vinícius share the same spaces.

“I think the biggest conundrum is getting the best out of Kylian and out of Vini Junior and seeing where they both want to play,” he said. “As we know, and you only have to see the World Cup, both of them like to drift out to the left and both like to stand left.”

That creates a simple, but crucial question: who stays central?

“It'll be interesting whose job it is to stay in the centre of the box and stay in the centre of the park because both like to come towards the ball,” McManaman added.

They are elite scorers, but not classic No.9s.

“They're both not number nines,” he stressed. Madrid have tried to address that, bringing in young striker Carlos Espi, who “scored a couple of goals in pre-season already” and is “a number nine”. Gonzalo Garcia, now at Fulham, was another orthodox option who has moved on.

“Vini Junior and Kylian are not, for all the goals they've scored, they're not orthodox fox in the box-type stuff,” McManaman said.

Where does the penalty-box threat come from?

That lack of a natural penalty-box predator may drag Bellingham into the spotlight again.

“So maybe it will be up to Jude to make that push into the box,” McManaman suggested, hinting at a return to the role that made Bellingham such a devastating presence in his first season in Spain.

Much hinges on how Mourinho uses his wide supply line.

With Diomande expected to deliver from the flanks, McManaman is watching one thing closely: “If you've got Yan Diomande crossing the ball into the box, who's going to be there to head them in because you know Kylian and Vini are not prolific in the air?”

That, he admits, is what fascinates him about Mourinho’s second era in Madrid.

“I'm really interested in that side of what Real Madrid are going to do,” McManaman concluded.

The talent is there. The goals should follow. The question now is whether Mourinho turns Bellingham into the late-arriving finisher that ties it all together.