I think a good part of our attacking problems have to do with the quality of our crosses.
Alot of good build-up play is totally wasted if crosses end up behind the goal, straight into the keepers hands, or behind the on-rushing forwards.
This is an important part of what a modern full back needs to deliver. Nyom has been one of the worst offenders, with Dawson not much better. For that reason, Dawson would not be my ideal choice at full back. McLean and Phillips have also been inconsistent with the quality of their crosses.
Having said that, there's virtually nobody in the league who can deliver so many dangerous crosses as Brunt, and that's more or less a reason to select him.
It's just that the other players who reguarly get into wide positions must be able to make their crosses count. With the help of onrushing forwards getting their runs well timed. Hope Pardew is giving some attention to this.
While I agree that there's no better in our team that can deliver crosses like Brunt, gone are the days where he's marauding down the wing, beating his man and putting a dangerous ball in from the byline like he used to. His set piece delivery is the best in our side however which means he really does need to be on the pitch for corners and free kicks alone.
However we do need someone who can get up and down the line and put a killer ball in, unfortunately McLean and HRK (or JRod) aren't the players to do this. Phillips can do this on his day, but we all know his injury issues.
I'd also argue that we've only really got Rondon who is a threat in the air in open play from crosses into the box, so maybe it's time to move on from always looking to cross the ball into the box when we're on the attack (although you could say maybe that's why we're not looking to try that anyway recently).
Does bring up another point, that is what do we try to do when we attack or break? Is it worth exploiting the wings for a cross when we've only really got Rondon who can cause issues in the air? Or should we try to keep it on the floor through the middle, where we're lacking a CAM or number 10 to link the play up? Think this may be why we are actually struggling to score goals, since we don't (or can't) really have a solid strategy for attacking at the moment (if that makes sense!).
