Jose Mourinho returned to Real Madrid with one obvious problem to solve. The club had no shortage of stars, but putting them together into a balanced football team had become increasingly difficult. Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham are all players capable of deciding games on their own, yet getting the best out of one can easily mean asking another to sacrifice something.
Only a few weeks into the new season, Mourinho appears to have found at least part of the answer. Real Madrid have started strongly, the 4-0 win over Malaga was their most convincing performance yet, and perhaps the clearest indication of what is changing can be found in Bellingham.
Bellingham looks like Bellingham again
There has never been much doubt about Bellingham's quality. The question has been where exactly Real Madrid should use it.
His extraordinary first season in Spain provided one answer. Playing high up the pitch, regularly arriving in the penalty area and operating almost as a second striker at times, Bellingham scored 19 LaLiga goals. The arrival of Mbappe inevitably changed the picture. Real Madrid no longer needed Bellingham to provide the same number of goals, and his position became increasingly fluid.
Mourinho has simplified things.
Bellingham is again spending much more of his time as a No 10, close to the striker and in areas where he can affect attacks directly. Sky Sports noted after Madrid's opening games that Mourinho appears to be getting the best out of the England midfielder by restoring him to the role in which his combination of physical power, timing and technical ability becomes most dangerous.
The early numbers support the idea. Bellingham has two goals and two assists from the opening three league matches, while his influence goes beyond those statistics. He has been involved in another goal, created chances and repeatedly found himself in positions where opponents have to decide whether to follow him into midfield or allow him to receive the ball between the lines.
Against Malaga, that problem was obvious.
Madrid were already 3-0 ahead inside half an hour, something they had not managed in a LaLiga match since 2019. Bellingham was at the centre of the performance, constantly moving into the spaces around the penalty area while Mbappe occupied defenders ahead of him. Madrid eventually won 4-0, with Arda Guler adding the final goal in the 90th minute after replacing Bellingham late in the game.
This is not a radical tactical invention. Mourinho has simply put one of Madrid's best players back into the areas where he can do the most damage.
Mourinho inherited a team full of difficult decisions
When Mourinho returned to the Bernabeu, the size of the task was easy to underestimate. Real Madrid had just finished a second consecutive season without a major trophy. The individual quality remained extraordinary, but there were questions throughout the team.
How should Mbappe and Vinicius coexist? Where should Bellingham play? How much defensive responsibility could Madrid demand from their forwards? How should Trent Alexander-Arnold be used? And, perhaps most importantly, how could all of those individual pieces become a team rather than simply an exceptional collection of players?
Those were among the major issues surrounding Mourinho when he took the job. His first spell at Madrid was built around a very different squad and a very different version of football. Trying to recreate the team of Cristiano Ronaldo, Mesut Ozil, Xabi Alonso and Angel Di Maria would make little sense in 2026.
But some of Mourinho's old principles are already visible.
Roles are becoming clearer. The distances between players are more controlled. Madrid can attack quickly when space appears, but they do not need every possession to become an end-to-end contest. Most importantly, the biggest players appear to understand what is expected of them.
Bellingham is the best example because his role had become one of Madrid's biggest tactical questions. Mourinho has not tried to turn him into something new. He has reduced the number of things he needs to be.
Mbappe changes everything around Bellingham
There is another reason the move works: Mbappe.
Playing Bellingham behind a forward with Mbappe's movement creates a particularly uncomfortable problem for defenders. If a centre-back follows Mbappe when he moves away from the penalty area, space opens behind him. If the defensive line stays in position, Mbappe can receive the ball. And when midfielders become occupied with Madrid's deeper players, Bellingham can attack the gap between the two lines.
It suits what Bellingham does best.
He is not a traditional playmaker who wants to stand between the lines and dictate every attack. His greatest strength is movement. He can carry the ball through midfield, combine in tight spaces and then arrive in the box like an additional forward. Giving him a fixed starting position does not make him a fixed player.
Mourinho appears to understand that distinction.
The result is a Madrid attack that already looks more organised without necessarily becoming less dangerous. Vinicius still has the freedom to attack from the left. Mbappe remains the main reference close to goal. Bellingham operates behind them and can choose when to join the front line.
There will be much harder tests than Malaga, but the structure is becoming visible.
The old Mourinho and the new Madrid
Any discussion of Mourinho at Real Madrid inevitably leads back to his first spell.
Between 2010 and 2013, his best Madrid team was devastating in transition. Cristiano Ronaldo was the dominant scorer, Ozil connected midfield and attack, Di Maria provided enormous tactical flexibility and Xabi Alonso controlled the game from deeper positions. The 2011/12 side scored 121 goals in LaLiga and finished with 100 points.
This Madrid cannot simply become that team again, and Mourinho does not have exactly the same players. But Bellingham's role offers an interesting connection between the two eras.
Mourinho has always valued players who can perform more than one function without making the team complicated. Bellingham fits that description almost perfectly. He can be a midfielder when Madrid need control, a runner when they counterattack and effectively another forward when the ball reaches the penalty area.
Luka Modric, who knows both Mourinho and Real Madrid better than most, has already noticed the change. Speaking to AS this week, the former Madrid midfielder said he likes what he is seeing from Mourinho's new team. His comments about Bellingham were particularly interesting: Modric believes the Englishman has the qualities required to become a leader of Madrid for years.
That does not mean Mourinho has already solved Real Madrid.
Three league games are nowhere near enough to make that conclusion.
The real tests are coming
This is the part worth remembering. Early-season football produces conclusions much faster than it produces evidence. Madrid have started well and Bellingham looks excellent, but Mourinho's system will eventually be tested against opponents capable of forcing Madrid into uncomfortable situations.
Real Betis are next in LaLiga before Inter Milan arrive in the Champions League. Bigger domestic tests and the Clasico will follow. There will be games when Madrid cannot dominate territory, when Vinicius and Mbappe lose the ball repeatedly and when Bellingham is required to spend far more time defending than attacking.
That is when we will learn much more about Mourinho's second Real Madrid.
For now, though, there is already something significant happening. Mourinho inherited a squad containing some of the best footballers in the world and, rather than immediately trying to reinvent them, has begun by making their jobs clearer.
Nobody illustrates that better than Bellingham.
Real Madrid spent much of the recent past trying to decide whether he was a midfielder, a No 10 or something closer to a forward. Mourinho's early answer appears much simpler: he can be all three, but he needs to start where he is most dangerous.
So far, it is working. And if Bellingham continues to look this comfortable, the biggest change Mourinho has made at Real Madrid may not be a new system at all.
It may simply be giving his best players the right jobs again.
Published by Patrick Jane
03.09.2026