Sideways Sammy

The lynchpin of the Frank Lampard era, after a strong start to the season, Matt Grimes struggled for form over the winter months, which was a key reason why the team overall also saw their performance levels dip. Grimes can be a hugely influential player but he is someone who requires the right conditions in order to succeed. A key reason why Grimes started the campaign so well was because of the energy and dynamism of the players around him, allowing the midfielder to get a foothold in games, when that energy dipped, it has exposed some of Grimes’ shortcomings. As much as Grimes has to offer when at his best, that he requires others around him to play well in order to excel, he is a tough player to genuinely admire.

Matt Grimes is a very specific style of midfielder with a set of attributes many others don’t have. Neither a playmaker nor a defensive midfielder, Grimes sits at the base of the midfield – most often right alongside the centre-backs when in possession – and keeps play ticking over with a succession of short passes. That can be supremely effective when the team is looking to dominate possession, negating the opposing team’s press, taking the onus off the centre-backs to play passes into midfield and stopping the team overall funnelling their attacks too heavily down one side. Grimes is much less effective when the team is not in control of possession, where his lack of a presence off-the-ball can make Coventry City easy to play through and a lack of desire to play cutting passes into the forwards can stymie counter-attacking opportunities, even creating opportunities for opponents by playing teammates into danger.

The key issue with Matt Grimes isn’t necessarily about him as an individual player but that the team has effectively been built around him. When the team struggles for form, Grimes does, and vice versa. Even with the addition of Frank Onyeka to add some of the missing physical presence in the middle of the park, there simply isn’t the ability (or desire) to replace Matt Grimes. For the most part, Grimes’ fitness record and level of performance hasn’t necessitated that as a conversation, however, that extended poor run over the winter might have been addressed sooner had Grimes been able to tailor his game or Frank Lampard could have taken him out of the side. For the time being, Grimes and the team’s performances look to have been rectified by Onyeka’s signing but there may be a conversation to be had soon as to how to unplug Grimes’ influence over this team.