Football Season Guide

For the first time since 2018, Las Palmas are back in Spain’s top division. The club from the Canary Islands has come up following their runners-up finish in the second division, in their first full season under former Barcelona youth coach Garcia Pimienta. As you’d expect from a former La Masia tactician, Las Palmas dominated possession last season, averaging 66 percent, the second-highest in the competition, only behind Andorra. By keeping the ball away from their opponents, they let in just 29 goals, the fewest in the division, while scoring enough at the other end too. Las Palmas have been the busiest of the promoted clubs in the off-season, as the directors felt significant improvements were needed if they were to have a chance of staying up. So, several fresh faces have come in and it’ll be Garcia Pimienta’s job to integrate them as quickly as possible. It’ll be a challenge for Las Palmas to play the same style that got them promoted, but this is their main strength and they’ll try to stick with it. Another strength is their away form. Despite being located so far from the Spanish mainland, Las Palmas took the most away points last season, with 36 from 21 games. The weakness that they need to improve is converting their possession into goals. There is no regular goalscorer in the squad and their top scorers from last season were Sandro, Marc Cardona and Jonathan Viera, all tied on seven. That won’t be enough to survive in the top tier.