UD Las Palmas soars in the league despite key player's reduced role

The Canary Islands team maintains its promotion aspirations, while a fundamental player sees his on-field prominence diminish.

Generic image of a soccer ball on a stadium pitch.
IA

Generic image of a soccer ball on a stadium pitch.

UD Las Palmas has managed to consolidate a winning streak and keep its promotion options intact, even though one of its most emblematic players has seen his role in the team diminish.

The team from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has shown a remarkable ability to compete and achieve positive results, even without the constant presence of a footballer who, in principle, was destined to be the central axis of the project. His participation has drastically decreased, alternating substitutions with alleged injuries and rumors about his relationship with the coaching staff.
Statistics reflect this situation, showing a secondary role for the player at a crucial moment of the season, when his leadership should be fundamental. In the last three months, he has only started twice, both at home, and has not played minutes since the defeat in Málaga on April 11. Other teammates have taken his place in rotations, as evidenced in the recent match against Valladolid.
Throughout the season, the footballer's numbers are discreet: a single goal, scored from a penalty, and significantly less playing time than the team's main members. He has been part of the starting eleven on eleven occasions, representing barely a quarter of the total matches played up to matchday 40, without having completed any match to date.

"We have a normal player-coach relationship."

the Asturian coach

"He is a very good coach, a spectacular guy and we are delighted with him, even though he is the one I have been on the bench with the most. He is going to be a top coach, he is very prepared and we have to take care of him, as I said back in the day with Quique Setién."

the footballer
Despite this individual situation, the team's good results and strong chances of achieving promotion have made this period of the player as a luxury spectator more bearable. The club insists that he can still turn the situation around and that his success could resurface before the end of the season, an opinion shared by many of his teammates. However, his return to prominence seems complicated if the coach maintains the established order.