the palms ahead

One of the great strengths of the stage of Pepe Mel on the bench this season was his ability to maintain a result when scoring against his rivals. Not in vain, in 80% of the cases that the yellows were ahead they would end up winning. Six games at home and two away, for a total of eight wins.

Although it is true that only Zaragoza and Almería were able to avoid a Gran Canaria victory after Las Palmas scored the first goal of the night, there was an anomaly, because the ten times he was ahead on the scoreboard corresponded to the ten times he opened the can of matches.

This anomaly amplified the feeling that in many games Las Palmas was late. Something that the Madrid coach commented on in what would be his last press conference. “The problem is that you stand with 1-0 in a play that you already give away. You come back and have to climb the mountain again and in the end you give away another goal again”He said Pepe Mel at the end of the match against Fuenlabrada.

And it is that on the other side of the coin, In 11 of the 24 games with the Madrid player on the bench this season, the yellows saw their rivals being the first to score in the game. Something that was seen with greater repetition in their last eight games, when the rivals went ahead five times.

Although the problem was not in that, but in the inability to the palms to end up winning if he looked behind on the scoreboard. Once the rival took the lead, the Gran Canarians could not turn the electronic on any occasion, neither at the end of the match nor even during it. That ended up making a dent, aware that either you scored first or the game was very complicated.

Then came the relief on the bench. With García Pimienta of the 16 games played, Las Palmas has been ahead on the scoreboard on 12 occasions. To win a total of 8. Now, and this is where the change is. Of the six times that their rivals scored the first goal of the game, Burgos, Zaragoza, Lugo, Leganés, Ponferradina and Eibar, Las Palmas got four ahead. To end up winning two —Leganés and Ponferradina— and drawing another two —Lugo and Eibar—.

There is also a fact that invites optimism, the one that says that in the last ten games, those who go from Girona to Alcorcon, Las Palmas has been ahead of the rival on the scoreboard at some point in each game. On seven occasions he was the first to score and three times he turned the opponent’s initial goal around. The best streak so far in the league was previously three in a row.

Likewise, of the total of the 900 regulation minutes at stake in these last 10 games, they have been winning 54% of the time, drawing 26% and losing only 11%. Concentrated above all on the hour that was seen from behind in Ponferrada.

Regarding the comparison in the percentage of matches that the yellows were the first to score, we have to with Mel it happened in 43% of the games, while with García Pimienta it does so in 50%. On the other hand, with the player from Madrid directing 80% of the times he scored the first goal, he ended up winning the match and with the player from Barcelona he does so in 75% of the games, escaping victory against The Girona Disaster.