Brilliant Jude Bellingham sets the tone for Borussia Dortmund with vital midfield production

Jude Bellingham has been catching the eye all season long with his performances in midfield for Borussia Dortmund. With the Black and Yellows in the midst of an injury crisis, the continuing production of the England can play a massive part in getting through this patch.

Borussia Dortmund’s injury list is continuing to grow, as is the potential damage it can cause to the team’s offensive production. Coming into the game against Arminia Bielefeld, the Black and Yellows were without their two leading goal scorers in the league, Erling Haaland and Raphael Guerreiro.

Replacing the impact of Erling Haaland and Raphael Guerreiro is not going to come down to an individual effort for Borussia Dortmund. Haaland has scored in five of the six league games this season, and on four of those occasions he has found the net twice. While Guerreiro has been a key player in the Borussia Dortmund attack for many years now. He’s always a threat to score the spectacular or create something special and his playmaking down the left flank will be heavily missed till he returns from his injury.

A majority of the responsibility to fill this void will be put on the Borussia Dortmund front line, but if the likes of Jude Bellingham and Julian Brandt can offer production from deeper roles, it will greatly help the team’s efforts. Against Arminia Bielefeld on Saturday, Bellingham did exactly that.

He helped Borussia Dortmund break the deadlock in the first half. As Donyell Malen was dispossessed, Bellingham won the ball back as the home side attempted to play out of the back. His interception would have found Malen if not for a foul on the Dutch international, giving Dortmund a chance to score from the spot. To fit the theme of midfield production, Emre Can converted from the spot.

The main headline of the game though was of course Bellingham’s goal to all but confirm the result in Borussia Dortmund’s favour. Marco Reus found Bellingham on the edge of the box after a great bit of control from the captain. Bellingham then took on three defenders from there, faking out the first and splitting the next two, before calmly chipping over Stefan Ortega in goal. His dribbling has looked dangerous all season, and that play showed just how good it can be.

Bellingham has seen a steady increase in his attacking productivity since the start of the season. He has two goals and two assists in the league, and has been involved in all three of Borussia Dortmund’s goals in the UEFA Champions League this season.

His overall attacking role and instinct have also been on the rise, while his decision making continues to get better and better. Throughout the game against Arminia, he continued to try efforts from outside of the box and was always rushing to get into the box for any potential cutbacks from the two wing-backs.

Jude Bellingham took the headlines, but Julian Brandt also showed some nice potential going into the next few games by helping fill the injury void from a creative perspective. He was almost always involved in the build-up with his flicks and first time passes in moves that potentially should have ended in goals for Borussia Dortmund.

He also had distant involvement in the second and third goal. His blitzing shot from a tight angle forced Ortega into conceding a corner, which resulted in the Mats Hummels wonder-goal. And he also started off the move for Bellingham’s goal, as he beat his defender on the wing before crossing the ball to Reus on the left flank.

Julian Brandt is also on two Bundesliga goals for the season, and both of them have came at very important time for Marco Rose’s side. His continued creative output, along with Bellingham’s will be instrumental in seeing Borussia Dortmund through this stretch they are heavily short handed for.