As a chap who's name once hung above the manager's door at Anfield once said, 'if you're not sure what to do with the ball, pass it to the nearest red shirt.' No caveat was inserted as to whether the pass was to be forwards, backwards or sideways.
Without the ball you can't score, keeping possession will always increase the chances of a goal being scored.
Foreign players are taught from an early age not to 'get stuck in' but to keep possession at all costs. Watching some of the lesser teams in the UEFA Cup this season, it's interesting to see how adept they are at keeping the ball, rather than the average chain of five passess then hit it hopefully over the top that you see repeated at most Premier League grounds on a depressingly regular basis.
In terms of mentality, if we had a squad full of Dirks and Lucases (sp?) then 19 would be significant to us for rather more positive reasons.