The derby that sets an Island on fire and that points to García Pimienta

Because the Catalan coach, with the well-worn excuse that his players are not ready to play two games in three days, put out an eleven that he himself knew was very limited, incapable of being able to play the game that the team usually plays. Only with the inclusion of a line of center backs with Álex Suárez and Juanma Herzog, whose strong point is not the release of the ball, with Mfulu ahead, That it is a spectrum of what it was and that, in any case, it always stood out more for its destructive capacity than for its constructive one, is enough to understand why the UD could not even advance.

And since Las Palmas does not advocate long balls because their philosophy prevents it, they got tangled up in a thousand passes between the defense and Aarón that all they did was make it easier for Tenerife to put pressure on and get out at speed. If we add to all of this the slow pace of the protagonists on the field, the lack of work done by the coaching staff on set pieces – the first goal came from a corner after four minutes -, Araujo’s immaturity – sent off for a headbutt against Nacho when UD was at its best – and the extra motivation of a rival that takes derbies more seriously, a Molotov cocktail emerged whose consequence was what many anticipated before the clash.

The bad thing about speeches that come out in a rush because it is what needs to be said is that when the practice does not match the words, the fans are intelligent enough – some still don’t know this – to point it out to you. The contradictions of García PimientThey reached an unsustainable point with the fall in the derby. He said that he was “very excited about the Cup” and that he would produce a “very competitive” team. The reality is that no, and the coach knew it.

The surprise

So much so that at the end of the match he even said that if “I had had the same time as Tenerife” to prepare for the match “I would have put another line-up”, when his message is that anyone he puts in is capable of performing at the same level as the owner. Therefore, the coach knows that yesterday he did not put his best team when they were left six days ahead for the visit of Villarreal.

As if that were not enough, the Barcelona native surprised everyone with the inclusion of Abu Bassinga, a player who plays in the youth team and has not even gone through the reserve team. The coach must have thought that winning in the Heliodoro with a boy from the quarry who arrived in a boat to Gran Canaria It would be a reason for applause, and also for a certain amount of ridicule, but all he did was throw the young man to the lions when it wasn’t his turn. He appeared very little in the center of the field, saw a card and then could have been sent off. He was substituted at half-time.

García Pimienta’s reaction, however, was not to put a starting interior when the team was losing 2-0 and needed to come back, but to lower Cristian Herrera to that position to put Benito on the left wing. Kirian and Moleirotwo of the permanent ones who could change the trend, only acted for a little more than 20 minutes, too little, and Sory Kaba, The great sufferer of the decisions from the bench because he was an island in a UD without play, was replaced in the best moments of the yellows – in red at the Heliodoro -, in a new demonstration that the Catalan does not count on him and prefers its progress in this winter market.

Curiously, two of the strong men of García Pimienta in the locker room as are Mika Mármol and Munir They did not participate for a single minute, although the forward had been injured in the clash against Barça, although he was in a position to play something, as happened in Tudela. It was not the time to expose them in a disastrous match. Only the absence of Sandro, more prone to injury than the rest, was justified, but otherwise, the coach’s decisions made it clear that the Copa del Rey, contrary to what he stated in the previous round, mattered very little to him. .

Nothing he has done in the derby tarnishes the great work of the strategist in a UD with a clear identity, that competes in the majority of the games and that was capable of pushing some of the greats of the championship to the limit, but perhaps for The good league classification at the end of the first round – 25 points in 19 games – was a good time to try to go far in the Cup, as Osasuna did last year. Unfortunately for the fans, the coach did not believe so.

For all these reasons, the eyes after a new setback in Tenerife are directed at the coach no matter how much he avoids them. Also to some players, and in the same way, to Luis Helguera and Deivid, those in charge of putting together a squad that breaks down everywhere beyond the starting team and two or three other players; and also to Miguel Ángel Ramírez, who not only does not want to spend, but brags about it: he revealed at the end of December that he spends around 27 million on the squad when he could spend 35.2. The successes and failures, of all.