Technically, he's comfortably one of the best players in the league, which I've always used as my defence of Grimes in the past. Physically, he's a freak, played every minute for us in the last three seasons. Athletically, he's nothing special, but that combination should be enough for him to be our best player, week in, week out.
He's been woefully mismanaged by every manager since Potter. He's a fantastic creative midfielder, who if essential, can be used to cover ground and tick the game over. Instead, he's reduced to being a #6 that has no scope or remit to move forward - and even when he can, he's fallen into a role of being far too safe.
Funnily enough, it looked like Duff of all managers had fixed him last year, he started shooting a lot more, and was looking more effective moving forward than under Martin. Luke has gotten glimpses out of him with Franco to the side, but last night was a great example of how far he's fallen when having to play with Fulton.
It's not his fault that the team use him as a Get Out Of Jail free card every match, and he's too honest to stop covering the hard yards and letting someone else do it. The whole team is so absurdly reliant on Grimes that it beggars belief. I'd love to see a stat showing how many throws he's received in the last three seasons. It's literally as though we win a throw in, and just go 'where's Matty?'.