This is the fourth article in a six-part series looking at some of European football’s most innovative up-and-coming managers. Part one on Thiago Motta is here, part two on Kieran McKenna is here and part three on Paulo Fonseca is here.
Whatever your criteria for managerial success — strength of identity, tactical innovation, adaptability, results — Garcia Pimienta continues to prove, calmly and methodically, that he can tick the box.
His Las Palmas team are perched comfortably in 11th in their first season back in Spain’s La Liga, just five points from potential qualification for the Europa Conference League. But even such drastic over-performance — this is a club whose transfer record, paid in 2000, was just under £3million ($3.8m at the current exchange rate) — only tells half of the story.
Pimienta has overseen wholesale change at the club from Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands, a Spanish community off the coast of Morocco, introducing an attractive, passing game befitting his footballing roots. Close to three decades of total immersion in Barcelona’s youth setup, first joining them as a player aged 14 before going on to coach the under-19s and the Barcelona B reserve team, has left him with a wealth of experience when it comes to orchestrating technically dominant sides, even if this is his first full season of top-flight management at age 49.
It has been a long time in the making, but Pimienta’s obsession with possession has taken La Liga, and even former club Barca, by surprise.
Establishing yourself in the division above after a hard-fought promotion is tough enough, but Las Palmas have done so this season while taking on the big boys at their own game.
The numbers are astonishing; not only are they averaging 60.5 per cent possession in league games, trailing only Barcelona in that regard among the 20 La Liga sides, but their 303.7 defensive-half passes per match is a Spanish top-flight record across the past 18 years, according to Opta.
For patient, considered build-up, not even Pep Guardiola’s game-changing Barcelona sides reached the relentlessness of this — and here’s another reminder — newly-promoted team.
While they are always an aesthetically-pleasing watch, Las Palmas lack a consistent goalscorer, and so their domination of the ball largely translates to containment and control. They keep their opponents at arm’s length, boasting the fourth-best defensive record in the division, but have scored just 29 times themselves in as many league matches — one fewer than second-bottom Granada, who have won just two league games all season.
Much of it starts from the back with extreme sweeper-keeper Alvaro Valles. He has taken 683 touches outside of his penalty area this season, an incredible 410 more than the division’s next-most-adventurous goalkeeper.
Valles’ outrageous confidence in possession and pinpoint distribution allows Las Palmas to sustain pressure, particularly against low-block teams. Daring to hold onto the ball right until the last moment, he draws opponents out of the most stubborn of setups, while also squeezing right up high to allow his team-mates to flood the last line, as against Getafe below.
Valles is also heavily involved in deeper build-up, where Las Palmas exhibit one of Pimienta’s most eye-catching traits: overloads.
Collapsing backwards as a unit, it is not uncommon to see up to six of his outfield players rushing to create numerical advantages around the ball, providing multiple options for the man in possession to escape pressure, while keeping things moving with those short, incisive passes.
Midfielder Kirian Rodriguez is key here — no player has completed more passes or taken more touches this season in La Liga — while centre-back Mika Marmol is incredibly composed on the ball at age 22, obliterating the record for most passes in a Spanish second-division season last season by 912 (or to put it another way, 33 per game).
Here, against Athletic Bilbao, the swarm is in action to support Valles early on in the match, one of many dramatic surges of movement Las Palmas make across the pitch to keep the ball moving quickly and sharply.
While his team are expansive and technically outstanding on the ball, Pimienta is all about defensive organisation and rigour during the periods when the other lot have possession.
Again, Valles plays an important role with his advanced positioning, able to sweep the vast swathes of space behind an adventurous high line, allowing Las Palmas to squeeze their opponents and put them under intense pressure in build-up.
That usually tempts teams to play the long ball over the top, but Pimienta’s lads have that all sewn up too — not only has Valles made the most defensive recoveries of any goalkeeper in La Liga this season, but the team as a whole have provoked 130 offsides from their opponents. Only Aston Villa of the Premier League have triggered more in Europe’s ‘Big Five’ domestic leagues.
Against visitors Barcelona in January, for example, they caught the reigning Spanish champions offside 14 times — a single-game figure only beaten twice in La Liga history.
On this occasion, Saul Coco spots the late run of Frenkie de Jong, and sets off jogging backwards before planting his left boot and letting the Dutchman stray offside. Although, even if that trap fails, Valles is already racing out of his penalty area to intervene.
If the opponents try to play through them, Las Palmas take risks with their forward press. They rank highly across several pressing metrics; no La Liga team are allowing opponents less time on the ball than their average of 19.7 seconds per possession, while Athletic Bilbao are the only side in the division to have scored more from high regains.
One such goal came against Atletico Madrid in November, where that high line once again helped to compress the space for their opponents to escape.
As the ball comes across to Mario Hermoso, it is wing-back Julian Araujo who races up to apply pressure, while Rodriguez anticipates the next pass.
Nipping in before Pablo Barrios can receive the pass, he pokes the ball up to Munir, who can launch the counter-attack, and eventually, the ball is worked out to Benito Ramirez to score.
With an emphasis on control — careful and considered with the ball, aggressive and tireless off it — Pimienta has been able to mask his team’s blunt attacking output with collective organisation and a suffocating high line.
The Athletic’s new team-style wheel highlights the extremity of Las Palmas’ approach, comparing their performance to 131 other top-flight sides across Europe.
While their possession and defensive intensity metrics stand out, the data highlights a clear lack of cutting edge in the final third.
Part of the issue is personnel-based; only three Las Palmas players — Rodriguez, Munir and Marc Cardona — have scored more than two league goals this season. Winger Alberto Moleiro is one of the club’s brightest talents, but is not a prolific shot-taker, while former Everton winger Sandro Ramirez offers sparks of inspiration rather than consistent form.
At the same time, it is part of the wider purpose of Pimienta’s system; defending with the ball. Just 7.3 per cent of their possession sequences end in a shot, the third lowest in La Liga, but, as long as they have the ball, the opposition can’t score with it.
Their pass network from a 1-1 draw with Osasuna last month sums his philosophy up neatly; an advanced goalkeeper, pass-heavy centre-backs, the importance of Rodriguez in midfield, pitch-wide width, but also three forward players who are deep, and struggle to connect Las Palmas consistently with the final third.
While the goals don’t always flow, few teams are as fearless and flexible as Las Palmas on the ball; it’s almost like watching a different sport, one where technicians converge to solve a build-up puzzle.
Pimienta is extreme in his quest for control, and has found a solid formula without sacrificing his beliefs.
Whether he could transfer such tactical purity to another club is a question worth pondering — it would certainly be fun to find out.
(Top photo: Gabriel Jimenez Lorenzo/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)
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