Grimes

[TerryPHELAN]

I’m sorry, but this guy is stealing a living. Stats make good reading with his short sideways passing.
I know I’ll probably split opinion here, but for me for us to start to progress as a team he needs dropping.

 

[Birchgrovejack]

It'll never happen, I think he's started every game under Williams.

 

[Swim (A)]

A massively overrated player.

 

[Ringwood]

Grimes is useful for playing out from the back.. he isn't afraid to receive the ball in tight areas to keep possession and move us up the field in the first third of the pitch..

The issue however is he players like a defender and not a central midfielder which leaves us short on creativity and a midfield presence. Fulton then plays deeper to link up with Grimes but doesn't have the legs or the influence in a game to warrant selection.

Until Grimes plays up the field and stops these predicable short passing in acres of space with no intent then our issues will continue.

 

[JonTheJack]

Been saying for years that (on the pitch) he is by far our biggest problem. Plain to see for everyone that he has the tools in his box to be something so much better but he is too comfortable putting his crab outfit on.

 

[Andrew - North Hill]

As I said on another thread yesterday, he's that bloke who's been working in the same firm for 25 years.

He's part of the furniture, no one can remember who did the job before him, he's completely outdated and he hasn't kept up with modern techniques but everyone is too scared to say or do anything about it because they are worried if he's not there everything will go to shit.

 

[Dillwyn the Dog]

As I said on another thread yesterday, he's that bloke who's been working in the same firm for 25 years.

He's part of the furniture, no one can remember who did the job before him, he's completely outdated and he hasn't kept up with modern techniques but everyone is too scared to say or do anything about it because they are worried if he's not there everything will go to shit.

I just think because every manager beyond and including Potter have played him it seems to have gone to his head. I don’t see any urgency in his play at all - if we’re losing 1-0 at home he’s regularly passed it back to the centre half on many occasions. Time for the bravest decision of any Swansea manager since Laudrup dropped Garry Monk

 

[Dr. Winston]

Grimes frustrates me massively. He is absolutely capable of being the player that the kiddies with their heat maps and passing charts consistently insist that he is. The problem is that he's been here for nearly ten years now, and for maybe a season and a third in total he's looked that good.

When he plays like he did against Cardiff and last night then he is worth an extra midfielder to the opposition. We've played tedious football for most of the last five years and he's been a central figure in that. Maybe one day the club will work out that no team will ever consistently play fast attacking football with a midfield built around Matt Grimes.

 

[TerryPHELAN]

So reading from above, the consensus is that he’s best dropped.
Why is that none of the managers we’ve had since relegation have binned him?
The crux of our problems is the midfield of which Grimes is the central fulcrum

 

[Dr. Winston]

Most of the managers we've had since relegation have been of the modern, Moneyball, stats analysis style. If you're just looking at the figures, then Grimes is awesome.

It's a cultural thing and it's killing football as an entertainment. Kevin de Bruyne's recent comments about "pass completion" stats are spot on.

 

[WentToSchoolWith]

I'm a big Grimes apologist, but even if he's having a stinking run of form, he's not gonna get dropped. Nothing to do with manager favourites or anything, it's purely down to the fact that we have fuck all other options. It's gone massively under the radar how barebones are midfield options are this summer, and it's the main issue with the team imo.

Grimes and Franco start, either of those get an injury and we're down to past-it Fulton, an injury prone, old Allen, or a raw, yet to impress Abdulai.

 

[Andrew - North Hill]

Most of the managers we've had since relegation have been of the modern, Moneyball, stats analysis style. If you're just looking at the figures, then Grimes is awesome.

It's a cultural thing and it's killing football as an entertainment. Kevin de Bruyne's recent comments about "pass completion" stats are spot on.

Been having this exact same debate with someone else recently.

Did you know a "progressive pass" is defined as a pass that is a minimum 10 metres long and moves the ball from one quarter of the pitch to another?

In other words, what Grimes does constantly for 90 minutes - getting it off the centre backs and passing it out to the flanks, usually to an advanced full back in our own half.

The metric itself is utter bollocks in terms of usefulness or impact but because he hits 90%+ it makes him brilliant apparently...

 

[FearOfAJackPlanet]

Fabregas made some comments on this recently as well - how passing stats are mostly useless in assessing a players worth - what's important is the ability to pass forwards, to break the lines and make forward progress, anyone can pass backwards or sideways (although some of our lot even struggle with that at times...)

 

[Dr. Winston]

Did you know a "progressive pass" is defined as a pass that is a minimum 10 metres long and moves the ball from one quarter of the pitch to another?

So basically a pass from the edge of our area to the halfway line counts as a progressive pass. Some Twitter dumbass actually quoted back at me with a pass map of Grimes the other day. 90% of them were from a central position to the flanks just in our own half.

I want him to be better. I know he can be. He consistently refuses to do so.

We'd lose nothing by having a midfield of Fulton, Franco and Cooper. As much as people like scapegoating Fulton he is easily capable of contributing as much as Grimes does most of the time.

 

[Andrew - North Hill]

So basically a pass from the edge of our area to the halfway line counts as a progressive pass.

In a nutshell, yes.

Bollocks, isn't it.

I agree with your assessment btw - all of our midfield are much of a muchness, they're all interchangable for me. Like swapping a Panasonic AA battery for a Varta one. Would make no fecking difference whatsoever, they all do the same humdrum, limited job.