Las Palmas’ 2016/17 season ended with coach, players and fans experiencing a sense of disappointment, but the truth is that it was an overall positive campaign. 14th placed would have been considered a good season for many had it been offered to them last summer, but the problem was that Las Palmas started so well that their second-half-of-the-season collapse left a bitter taste in their mouths. They were top after two weeks and still as high as eighth after 17 rounds, with European football still a legitimate aspiration. However, a second half of the season of just four wins, two draws and 13 defeats was difficult to endure. Part of the reason for the collapse might have to do with reported dressing room issues, while coach Quique Setien’s decision to announce in March that he wouldn’t be staying for the 2017/18 campaign is also thought to have been misjudged, as all of a sudden there was even less motivation for players to impress a coach who they knew would not be sticking around. Las Palmas also struggled on the road and they won just one away game all La Liga season, beating a dysfunctional Valencia 4-2 on the opening day. That meant they had the very worse away form of all 20 La Liga teams, so that didn’t help them out much at all.
There were, however, some exciting performances when they played in front of their own fans and the brand of football was an enjoyable one to watch. Las Palmas played a very possession-based style, which was thrilling when it worked. One of their issues was that sometimes they kept the ball without doing all that much with it. When they did get it to their front men, though, the goals usually came.
