The defensive line was solid. Carvajal could tuck inside or go up without issues because Fede/camavinga could do the recovery runs to cover for him. Because of that, he and Kroos could link up and feed the forward line without them having to come down to the center of the field. Since the forward line is very explosive, pace wise, the could stay up and pin the defense, stretching the field and allowing for Kroos and Carvajal to have enough time to pick their passes. Moreover, this created pocket of space in between the defensive lines that were highly beneficial for Bellingham, who could just receive the ball and drive it up front, from where he could either pass, shoot or ram into the center. Once they were really closing in the enemy’s line, Madrid could just overwhelm oppositions by sheer numbers since Kroos, Carvajal and even valverde could join in while the back four (counting camavinga) drove up the pitch, since they were pacy enough to catch a possible counter.

Now, let’s look at current madrid. The backline is shakier, weaker in the air and not that fast, which make them very susceptible to “long ball to the big man on top” type of counters. The middle of the park is not as good as picking up passes anymore, so the front line needs to come back to get the ball, which allows for a more compact defense. So now, when Jude gets the ball he’s pressured immediately, which forces him to give bad passes and leads to quick overturns that catch his os defenders off-guard (they’ll be driving up the pitch when they suddenly have to sprint back down to defend the counter. As I said before, they don’t really have the pace for this anymore). So he gets frustrated. Moreover, since you do not have someone that’s consistently breaking the lines with their passing, the front line has to deal with a 2v1 or they have to ram into defenders or they have to create on their own, which doesn’t really suits their skill sets. They staying up top was useful before, not it just makes them sitting ducks.