Can Jose Mourinho repeat Frank Lampard trick with Jude Bellingham? Real Madrid looking for England star to become one of the world’s best goalscoring midfielders

Back in 2004, after anointing himself as the ‘Special One’, Mourinho took the reins at Premier League giants Chelsea. He inherited a number of proven performers, and drafted in plenty more courtesy of a billionaire owner. One of those already on the books at Stamford Bridge was Lampard.

He found the target on 19 occasions during Mourinho’s debut campaign at the helm, before going on to hit the 20 mark and maintain those standards across five successive seasons - eventually posting 211 efforts in total for the Blues across 13 years and 648 appearances.

Lampard set the standard for those that have followed in his footsteps, including Birmingham academy graduate Bellingham. The buccaneering 23-year-old registered 23 goals on the back of moving to Santiago Bernabeu in 2023 - winning La Liga and Champions League titles.

His numbers have dipped since then - with the net being hit only eight times last season during an injury-hit campaign - but he managed seven at the 2026 World Cup and is now working under Mourinho. The Portuguese will find a prominent role for Bellingham in his plans.

Quizzed on whether Bellingham can become Lampard Mark II for Mourinho, as he operates in a more advanced playmaking post, McManaman - who was speaking to GOAL courtesy of Disney+, who will be showing Mourinho’s first La Liga game back at the helm on ESPN this Saturday when Real take in a trip to Espanyol - said: “I think he did that in his first year didn’t he, but time will tell because the year before last he dropped a little bit deeper, and last year he struggled for goals.

“I think with the introduction of Kylian, his role changed, but whether Jose will want to play that role this year, we'll have to wait and see. It seems that he wants to play Kylian, Vini Junior and [Yan] Diomande, and that's going to be the big point in the end, whether the space is there for Jude to make that front 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, so let's hope that happens. But we'll all have to wait and see.

“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 because 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, so 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.

“They're both not number nines. I know they bought a young lad, [Carlos] Espi, who scored a couple of goals in pre-season already, he is a number nine and Gonzalo Garcia who's now at Fulham was a number nine.

“Vini Junior and Kylian are not, for all the goals they've scored, they're not orthodox fox in the box-type stuff. So maybe it will be up to Jude to make that push into the box but I'm waiting to see what Jose does and what Jose changes and how Jose's going to help them operate because 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? I'm really interested in that side of what Real Madrid are going to do.”

Bellingham boasts all of the attributes that allowed Lampard to become one of the most fearsome midfielders on the planet - with his game all about high energy and arriving in the final third at the right time in which to make a telling contribution.

Real will need him to burst back into double figures on the goal front this season, and towards 20 once more, as they are looking to wrestle domestic dominance back from Clasico rivals Barcelona while also chasing down a record-extending 16th European Cup win.

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