Some interesting thoughts here.
I think most PL defences, especially when they know they are playing us, are very well organised. They know what the obvious ball for us to play is, and they, more often than not, will close that avenue down and restrict us to moving the ball and looking for the next chance. We don't have many players who can dribble past a player, so it is a question of finding the right ball, which will always mean a lot of passing.
We do get the ball in the box pretty often. What I think we don't do so well is get men into the box to take advantage. Part of that is down to Lucas being out, or Gerrard being out earlier in the year.
With Lucas on the pitch, we have a player who can see options, who can win the ball and very quickly generate an attack. Spearing's passing is very good, but I don't see him in the same "Alonso" role of being the man everything moves through. The absence of Lucas means that the likes of Adam, Henderson and Gerrard, players with an instinct to join the attack, will be held back in deeper roles, and not be getting the through balls when the opposition don't expect it as much. They also are less likely to get forwards into the box in support of the striker when we are able to play in crosses.
Someone made the point about floated balls against drilled crosses above, and that's fair enough, but you work with what you've got, and floated balls can easily lead to goals if the attacking team puts enough pressure onto the ball and the defence when it comes in. Again, numbers in the box are a part of this.
One more thing, though.
Many times I've been watching a game, the ball falls to someone in or just outside the box and someone shouts "SHOOT!" even though the ball is at chest height and there's a defender right in front of our man. We want him to shoot, he wants to shoot, but until the ball sits up and there's a space to shoot into there's no point, you're just giving away possession and wasting the opportunity your team has worked its balls off to get you in possession in that part of the field.
So he controls it, and eventually lays it off to someone in a better position.
He's done the right thing, he never had any option, but a lot of people watching the game seem to feel like he's done wrong. I've not played the game at any advanced level, true, but nor have I ever seen anyone kick a ball forwards when it is level with their collarbone or score a goal through the torso of a defender.
