Are you playing offline or online? If you are playing online, try playing offline.
What difficulty are you playing against? If you are playing offline. Lower the difficulty setting until you are scoring goals with little effort, then step up your game. Keep in mind, there is a steep jump from 'Professional' to 'World Class'.
Have you looked at your controller settings? Most people find 'auto' the best setting for passing, through balls, and switch player. With the switch player function also switched to 'headers only'. Additionally, set the cross to 'semi'.
Additionally, if you goto the 'Arena Mode', under 'Skill Games' and press the back button on your controller, you can bring up an 11v11 practice mode which is nice.
Try using 'LT' and 'LB' (L2, L1) when receiving passes. Also, you can use 'LB' (L1) to send a player on the run.
Don't be afraid to pass backwards, or outside. Crossing is a great way to get the ball into the box when first starting out as well, and the 'B' (O) button will clear the ball in your half which is a great tool to get used to now when you are just trying to get the ball out of your third of the pitch.
If you are playing on Xbox, feel free to add me (GT: Awesome Animals), and we can play some matches together.