Under the coaching of Garcia Pimienta, the Canary Islanders have climbed to eighth place and sit on the podium in terms of possession stats.
For Las Palmas, the 2023/24 season is their first at La Liga level since 2017/18, but you wouldn’t know it just from watching them play. After finishing second in Segunda last term, Los Amarillos came up to the top tier and continued to play the same brand of possession-based football that earned them promotion in the first place. Promoted sides often drastically change their style of play to cope with the higher level, but not Las Palmas.
The squad managed by Francisco Javier Garcia Pimienta, the former coach of FC Barcelona’s B team, sit third in the rankings in terms of average possession. Their average of 58 percent is only bettered by FC Barcelona and by Real Madrid, with the latter set to pay a visit to the Estadio Gran Canaria this coming Saturday.
This will also be a meeting of the sides with the two best defences in Spain, as Real Madrid have conceded just 13 goals and UD Las Palmas 17. That is reminiscent of last season, when the team from the Canary Islands finished with the best defensive record in Segunda, conceding just 0.69 goals per game.
Las Palmas’ excellent defensive numbers are down to the saves of starting goalkeeper Alvaro Valles, but are also thanks to their possession-based approach that keeps the ball away from their opponents. This was the formula in their most recent victory, a 2-0 win away at Rayo Vallecano, which was the club’s first top-tier victory in Spain’s capital since 1969. Las Palmas achieved 57% possession on the road, scored twice through Alberto Moleiro and Javier Munoz, and also needed Valles to make a couple of super saves against Alvaro Garcia and Jorge de Frutos.
At the other end, Los Amarillos have managed to score enough goals this season to make their control and solid defence count. This has led them to a record of nine wins, four draws and eight defeats, worth 31 points and translating into 8th position in the standings.
For a newly promoted team, those numbers aren’t normal. It’s also unusual for Las Palmas to have received so many compliments from their opponents. As Garcia Pimienta explained in a press conference: “When the games end, our opponents congratulate us. They tell us that what we are doing is incredible. They tell me that UD Las Palmas have earned the respect of the other clubs. It’s not easy to win and to play the way we do. We are a newly promoted side and our players are unknown to many, since some barely played in the second tier and now they’re in the top division.”
Among the players making their debutsthis season is Alberto Moleiro, a 20-year-old attacking midfielder who has come though the islanders’ prestigious academy. After missing the first nine rounds of the season due to injury, Moleiro hit the ground running after recovering and already has two goals and three assists to his name, including his strike against Rayo Vallecano last weekend.
Moleiro is one of nine club-trained players in the current Las Palmas squad. That in itself is another way in which this is a unique operation, as only three other clubs in Europe’s top five leagues have more academy alumni in their current squads, according to a recent CIES Football Observatory report.
This weekend, when Real Madrid come to town, it’ll be the ultimate test for those youngsters and for the entire squad. For Real Madrid, it’ll also be a tricky trip to a newly promoted team that doesn’t play like one.
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