Among the most perplexing storylines in La Liga in 2023-24, quite exactly how a Las Palmas team who were so reliable up until a few months ago have conspired to record the season’s longest losing streak has to be right up there.
Following their trip to Mallorca over the weekend, that’s now eight – yes, eight – defeats in a row for a team who had shown very few signs of an impending collapse. “It hurts a lot because it’s not that we were so good before or that we’re so bad now,” Garcia Pimienta said after Saturday’s defeat.
The temptation is there to put this all down to Las Palmas ‘being on the beach’ – the islanders are the most apt candidate for that phrase anyway – but it’s still far too simplistic an explanation.
Plenty of their players will be on the beach soon enough, but in the meantime, here’s a few reasons to explain their form…
Opponents have taken a step (or five) forward
Las Palmas set up their probable survival this season by managing the tempo of games with the ball – that’s to say, they liked a nice, slow rhythm in which they linked short passes and almost always had an extra man in their build-up. After finding their feet at the end of September, their credentials on the ball were really starting to take effect and opponents were wary of how to approach facing them. Once Las Palmas were established in the game outside of the defensive third, taking the ball from them was very difficult, and it’s much better to not press at all than it is to do so without the proper co-ordination or commitment.
Here in May, that hesitation to go after them has all but evaporated. At the risk of using the lazy cliche of ‘being found out’, it seems evident that the go-to approach against Las Palmas has morphed across the season, and the growing body of evidence for squeezing them high up the pitch continues with each game, almost regardless of the opponent. “Teams study us better now and they can hurt us easier,” said Kirian Rodriguez on Saturday.
Image via Marca
Las Palmas managed to survive their lack of goals for most of the season, but falling behind in games has now become a death sentence for their pursuit of results. As for whether the lack of goals is a Garcia Pimienta problem or not, it’s worth asking in how many other La Liga sides the likes of Sandro and Munir would start these days…
At the other end, Las Palmas’ wavering control of games has inevitably resulted in the team giving up bigger chances in recent months. Errors in the build-up, more time spent having to defend their box and the fatigue of just being hit by wave after wave of opposition pressure have all taken their toll. In between the sticks, however, Alvaro Valles has gone from superhuman in the first half of the season to decidedly mortal in the second.
Up until the turn of the year, Valles was the top-ranked goalkeeper in La Liga for goals prevented based on the quality of shots on target faced (+10.3), just over double that of Unai Simon then in second (+5). In 2024, Valles has conceded roughly three more than expected based on xG (-2.9), which is the third-worst mark only behind Augusto Batalla (-5.1) and Conan Ledesma (-3).
Job all but done and player futures coming into focus
Las Palmas have been in the top nine of La Liga for 113 days this season, while they’ve only spent 25 days in the relegation zone. Indeed, the last time they were in the bottom three was on 1st October and the threat of the drop has barely registered ever since.
There’s still a mathematical chance of Las Palmas going down this season, but having done their homework so early in assuring their likely survival, that loss of tension has certainly been a factor in their struggles over recent months.
Left back Sergi Cardona was on track to be one of the performers of the season for Los Amarillos, but his plummeting form and subsequent benching seems heavily tied to the fact he wants a summer move and won’t renew. Goalkeeper Alvaro Valles looked a lock for a spot in the team of the season in La Liga, yet he’s suffered a drop in form and seems likely to be in his final few games for the club.
Add to that the young talents like Mika Marmol and Alberto Moleiro who are in the shop window, and have already made their cases performance-wise prior to the last few months, and it seems logical there are a core of first teamers who are already thinking about their next challenge with the team’s objective (more than likely) achieved earlier than expected.
Style of play; why change?
Garcia Pimienta has said it himself; if there was another way of playing in which he thought Las Palmas would be a better team, he’d happily change.
Although the temptation is to scream change when a team is losing in similar fashion week-on-week, the profile of Las Palmas’ squad is one that needs to spend more time on the ball without it – there’s no escaping it. They don’t have the defensive characteristics across the squad to merely decide they’re going to become a defensive team, or one that merely defends better if they could just have fewer responsibilities in possession.
Besides, why, when Las Palmas are 99% assured of a place in LaLiga next season, would they now change a way of playing they’ve committed to since Garcia Pimienta arrived in January 2022?
The strength of the club’s project lies in how well they can refine their distinct way of playing, and there are few sides in the division whose longer-term prospects will be as tied to how well they can execute a specific model of play.
Even if Garcia Pimienta doesn’t stay on past the summer, Las Palmas will come back in 2024-25 with a similar idea of dominating the ball. Although they’re experiencing the painful part now, it’s not to say this is merely wasted time and the sign their manager has lost the plot. The Las Palmas of 2023-24 are what they are now, and it’s not a competent manager or viable idea of playing they’re missing.
Jamie Kemp can be found on social media here, and if you’re hungry for more, find their excellent work here.
The post COLUMN: The anatomy of a Las Palmas fall – the crests and crevices in one of La Liga’s most perplexing teams appeared first on Football España.
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