Rubén de la Barrera: Iñaki suspension forces a rethink for Andrés at Las Palmas

Las Palmas head into their next game with nine defensive absences and, on top of that, the suspension of Iñaki leaves Rubén de la Barrera with little room to keep tweaking the back line. Over the last two weeks, the coach has avoided starting Andrés Rodríguez, despite his own assessment of his versatility: «I’ve played as a right-back, and last season as a left-back and as a centre-back».

Instead, De la Barrera has preferred Loiodice and explained the issue on the left: «we could be limited there». Even so, he did start Pezzolesi at left-back against Albacete, but now the lack of Iñaki forces a new decision.

Changes to get through it

One option is to bring in Iván Medina, who would take Iñaki’s spot so De la Barrera wouldn’t need to disturb the rest of the defensive setup—Loiodice would stay at left-back. Another route is to shift Andrés into central defence alongside Álex Suárez, with Loiodice returning to midfield alongside Kirian.

If the coach wants to go with the academy, he can also lean on Rachid or Aidan Pérez: using the Moroccan would push Bonfanti to left-back, while going with Aidan would reduce how much the back line changes. And as a last, more “crazy” alternative, the coach could reproduce the structure he used vs Albacete—Pezzolesi left-back, Álex Suárez right-back, and Andrés plus Bonfanti as centre-backs.