You hit the nail on the head. I've come to think that it's actually our biggest problem. Whenever one of our players passes the ball, he stays where he is like a statue. And the players who are up front of the passer are also doing that. Hence, nobody makes himself available to receive the ball. And as a matter of fact, as the passer is unable to pass to a player in front of him, because they are all marked by their defender, he will have to pass the ball behind him or make a side pass. If our players were making themselves available to receive the ball, even with our lack of creativity and passing skill, our game would be more vertical. Had Xavi in our team, the problem would be more or less the same, since he will have nobody up front of him to who pass the ball, and will have to make a side pass... The bottom line is, to my eyes, before fixing our passing skill problem, we should first of all fixe our problem of movement. Of course, I on the other hand think we should also have more skillful players in our starting eleven, especially in our midfield. But with our current set of players, to make them more mobile is a necessity.