Full backs, attacking intent and crosses

I can’t think of another team that has full backs with so little attacking intent. And I don’t think many fans would want to see Ward, Clyne or (maybe to a lesser extent Mitchell) getting too far up the pitch – they are just not good enough. This is in no way a comment on their defensive abilities where they’ve done pretty well so far this season. Furthermore, our front three has a distinctive lack of aerial ability so having full backs putting in crosses isn’t really going to be very productive. Interested to hear peoples’ thoughts on this. It’s unusual for a team at our level playing without full-backs and without a regular stream of crosses into the box. Do we think that Vieira is being purely pragmatic and making the best use of players at his disposal? Or is this a system that he favours?