I agree with a lot of that, though I think Henderson's cautiousness is a little overplayed. The second goal against everton showed what he can do, and pretty recently - cuts inside, lovely ball to Suarez, then is the first player to get into the box (he actually overran play and was behind the goal line when Suarez finally setup Gerrard).
There's a "highlights" clip around somewhere of Henderson before he came here:
- the assists are through balls to players making smart runs.
- his crosses are almost all 'near post' variety, the type he put in against arsenal.
- his shots are "when he absolutely has to" and are placed rather than hit with power.
The problem for us, as you state, is that we don't really do any of that.
He can put the ball in at the near post until the cows come home, and Carroll won't be within a quarter of a mile of it... whilst Suarez is not known for being a precise finisher.
He can try putting in throughballs, but most of our players stand around watching the grass grow - you can't just play the ball into space and hope someone magically makes a run. In a similar vein if only one player makes runs it's rather trivial to stop them.
The apparent indecision about shape and formation is being discussed quite interestingly in the 'our fundamental problem' thread. It's becoming increasingly difficult to get away from the observation that we've not really settled on an answer to the Carroll 'problem'. Without going over that here, it would be interesting to imagine how Henderson's game would be faring in that tucked-in role playing those through balls for a goalscoring striker with pace and movement.
Personally I see Henderson progressing into an "Alonso role" rather than an attacking role. His goalscoring record is "not good" (the same can be said of Downing, but I don't see him in a defensive role).