García Pimienta Tactics At Las Palmas 2022/2023: How The Catalan Manager Has Turned Las Palmas Into One Of The Most Tactically Interesting Teams In Europe – Tactical Analysis

After coaching in Barcelona’s youth setup for nearly 16 years, García Pimienta took his first step into senior football with UD Las Palmas, in La Liga 2.

At La Masia, the 48-year-old famously won the 2017/18 UEFA Youth League after progressing through the youth setup.

However, Pimienta’s time with Barça is most notable for shaping and defining the Catalan’s tactical style.

Obviously, coaching Barcelona’s youth teams required him to adhere to the club’s philosophy and tactical identity.

Now, with Las Palmas, it is clear that this style of football has stayed with him.

In the last decade, the evolution of Spain’s possession-based football, along with the influence of various other footballing cultures, saw the development and rise of Positional Play, or Juego de Posición (JdP).

These tactics are now widely adopted in 2023, almost becoming the norm in European football.

Barcelona was key in developing this style as an organisation and with the many figures linked to the club.

Curiously, the city’s layout significantly resembles some of the core ideas behind this philosophy.

At any rate, García Pimienta was in the eye of the storm.

The 48-year-old began working with Las Palmas by incorporating this style of play into his tactics.

A year later, the Spanish club sits second in La Liga 2 and has a serious chance of being promoted to La Liga for the first time in five years.

While Las Palmas’ success is definitely notable, their tactics under Pimienta have been fascinating.

This tactical analysis will take a detailed look at García Pimienta’s Las Palmas, looking at the ins and outs of their attacking system.

This analysis will specifically examine how the 48-year-old has added his own twist to Juego de Posición and why this can be so significant for the development of this style of play.

Juego de Posición

With Pep Guardiola as its figurehead, Positional Play became an established approach to possession in the late 2000s.

This style of play was developed and refined throughout the 2010s, with Guardiola’s time at Bayern Munich playing a significant role.

Essentially, Positional Play provides a set of spatial guidelines for possession by dividing the pitch into five vertical lanes and some horizontal ones.

A team’s possession is then carried out through numerous principles and subprinciples, which use these predetermined zones and rules as a guide.

It is a complex system, and after becoming extremely popular, it took various directions, not all of which were positive.

Some teams using this approach drifted from the original idea, whether through inappropriate training or ill-suited squads and created an incorrect representation of Positional Play.

As a consequence, the philosophy itself became a scapegoat, not the incorrect implementation of it.

García Pimienta’s time with Las Palmas has demonstrated just how pleasing and effective this approach can be.

Positional Play’s criticism often revolves around static possession and individual repression.

Pimienta’s Juego de Posición proves the opposite and provides a new direction for this style.

With extreme fluidity, Pimienta’s tactics represent Positional Play at its best.

Additionally, it curiously contains significant aspects of an approach on the other end of the spectrum, the new Functional Play.

Without further talk, let’s break down how Las Palmas play under García Pimienta.

García Pimienta Tactics In Possession

Although there are variations, García Pimienta tactics mainly uses a 4-3-3 at Las Palmas.

This structure is only a starting point from which Pimienta’s men begin their fluid occupation of spaces.

This free-flowing system follows the JdP spatial guidelines and is done incredibly seamlessly.

This system can be first seen in the build-up.

Consistent with JdP, their structure is expansive, simultaneously maximising the width on both sides.

As mentioned, the 4-3-3 distribution is the starting point.

However, with the ball as a reference, zonal rotations begin emerging.

In the instance below, as the left back begins to push up in the left wing channel, the left winger drifts inside to the left half-space.

As this happens, the left central midfielder pushes higher so he is not occupying the same zone.

Alberto Moleiro, the 19-year-old left winger, is perhaps the creative reference in this squad.

From his initial position out wide, he often drifts into the central lanes to create.

In another example, we can see how these rotations allow them to create space and progress the ball.

The single pivot drifts into the left half-space, dragging his marker with him.