Yes. it did cut out the middle men last season - the trouble was, once the inch perfect pass had been delivered to the winger, when he looked up he would find that the CMs, Propper and Stephens, were anchored in their own half, and Murray had been back helping out the defence. Once in a while...
An accurate 40-50 yard pass isn't hoofing. That is one of the stupid fallacies that is sometimes bandied about by people who think that anything except tika taka is 'hoofing'.
Dunk's raking 50 yard diagonal passes were wonderful last season - they just weren't processed fast enough when received; it was always slow down, stop and pass it backwards or sideways once the ball was in the opponents' half (mainly because of the lack of Albion players to pass to!) So, I'm...