The crossroads of Las Palmas

And suddenly in The horizon of the Unión Deportiva Las Palmas only glimpses a crude present when just three weeks ago the illusion seized the club. It happens that the Gran Canaria entity began the year 2021 in an imperial way, dispatching consecutively to Espanyol, Mallorca and Leganés. But now, just three games later, football is always so changing, anxiety arrives.

They have already warned locals and strangers of the changing motivation of Las Palmas according to the classification of their opponent. “Sometimes we are in a hurry to beat the teams we are supposed to beat, but we have more patience when it comes to competing against large teams,” Pepe Mel warned last week before traveling to Almería, where his team returned to take a good portion of harsh reality.

After that outstanding winning streak, UD began to lose credit in Anduva, as surpassed as it was by Mirandés (2-0). A week later there was not even an amendment proposal before Sabadell, who won 0-1 in Gran Canaria, Nor is it that there are solid football arguments to doubt his victory despite the unjust expulsion of Álex Domínguez, who condemned Las Palmas to play with one less footballer from minute 33, the first shot between the three bad guys, from Pejiño, in minute 70. And as it seems that there are not two without three, Almería once again nailed a dagger in the yellow spirit last Sunday: 3-1.

If you don't beat Cartagena this Saturday, that he already applied a corrective series in the match of the first round in the Levantine city (3-0), Las Palmas will match its worst streak of the season, four games without winning, the same one he had between the days 8 and 11 against Cartagena (3-0), Albcete (1-1), Oviedo (1-2) and Girona (1-1). This sequence, Between the 17th and the 20th date of the calendar, it was repeated to close 2020 against Lugo (1-1), Ponferradina (0-0), Alcorcón (0-0) and Rayo Vallecano (2-0).

Sensations

If now the results fail again, the sensations do even more. In none of the last three losses, for a total again on aggregate for the season, did Las Palmas give Las Palmas the feeling of deserving something more. He has barely added a goal, that of Rafa Mujica in Almería, but it hardly generated danger. They discuss, equally, Mel's tactical decisions such as those to place Maikel Mesa or Araujo on the wing, the ownership of Clau Mendes at the top of the attack against Sabadell or the trivote that was useless in Almería. Change everything so that in the end nothing changes.

Likewise, the casualties for different reasons have massacred the plans of the Madrid coach. In Almería, without going further, could not count on indisputable headlines such as Rober, Kirian, Eric Curbelo or Álvaro Lemos, which shows the abysmal distance between the first and second unit of the equipment, more problems in a shaker that is already more than saturated. While waiting for the respective recoveries and the entry of Jesé, Las Palmas continues at the crossroads.