Position: Central Midfielder
Age: 30*
At Club Since: January 2025
Total Club League Appearances (Goals): 37(2) *
A player who will go down as the statement signing of the Frank Lampard era, intended to lead the team and dictate its style of play, Matt Grimes has looked far more comfortable in that leadership role this season and has been a key part of Coventry City’s early success. After arriving in January, his first months at the club were about bedding in to a new environment after so long at Swansea City. While he made a positive impact in helping Coventry into the play-offs, there was a sense that his overall play was a touch safe and lacking in assertiveness, Grimes has returned for the new season looking a much more authoritative, even aggressive figure on the pitch as he plays that lynchpin role at the base of the midfield.
Matt Grimes had played a very specific role in a team for a long period of time, looking to control games with short passes from a deep midfield position, often spending most of the match sat alongside the centre-backs in order to play that first pass out of defence. There had been some bemusement early on in his time at Coventry City about why someone supposedly so good on the ball would seemingly choose to play so far away from goal, while also not being particularly assertive in the challenge. This season, Grimes seems to have adapted his role to becoming more aggressive off-the-ball, taking slightly fewer touches with it but all while still being able to dictate games by keeping possession ticking over. Crucially, he looks much less of a soft touch out of possession, helping the team stymie opposing attacks by imposing a high defensive line, often helping mark opposition centre-forwards.
If the worry had been that Matt Grimes was the kind of cultured, non-aggressive midfield player that Coventry City fans wouldn’t warm to, he has shown some of the attributes this season that were deemed to be missing from his game. Now the club’s captain and the absolute lynchpin of the team, Grimes seems to have relished the responsibility as he has demonstrated he has much more to him than sitting back and tapping the ball around among the defenders. A real dictating influence on games, Grimes has been fantastic to start the new season with.
*As of 13/12/2025
Previous Profiles: New Signing, 10 Games In
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