How do people think the defence will line up over the next few games? Personally I thought the three at the back system just didn't work. The players didn't seem to know their roles and even Kompany looked unsure of himself.

I know Italy did well using this system at the Euros, and maybe Mancini was influenced by that, but I hope we return to Lescott-Kompany in the middle with orthodox full backs asap.

What do others think? Is the 3 man defence a long term plan or a stopgap?

As far as I can see, the current formation (of Zab, Kompany, +1) at the back is working just fine. If we add a defensive midfielder that can close down wingers rapidly, we're good to go like this in my honest opinion. I say this because a 17 year old tore our defence apart on the flank against Liverpool constantly, thats my only worry.

All i hope is the team can adapt to this new system quickly, what i mean quickly is by QPR game we've already reach the full fluency of the system.
It's always nicer have more variety of systems rather than stuck with just one.
last thing... from what i have read, this 3 at the back system have a lot of potential in terms of ball possesion / ball retention, width, counter attack. just look at Barcelona, they even use Yaya as their ball playing defender

Really? The lad had a decent game, admittedly. Think you are heaping a bit too much praise, there though.

-----------------------------------Hart--------------------------------
------------------Richards-----Kompany-----Lescott----------------
Maicon/Zabaleta--------------------------------------Clichy/Kolarov

The current, new formation will be much more effective in Europe versus the old, 4-2-2-2 formation. It's just, like Rodwell mentioned, our players have to adapt to it.

In Europe:

------------------------------------HART--------------------------------------------


---------------Nastasić(RICHARDS)---KOMPANY-----------LESCOTT(ZABA)-------------


MAICON(RICHARDS)-----------------GARCIA(BARRY)---------------------CLICHY(KOLAROV)


--------------------------------------YAYA----------------------------------------------

------------------------------SILVA(NASRI)-------TEVEZ(BALOTELLI)----------------

--------------------------------------AGUERO(DZEKO)-----------------------------------

i think we should give it more time, everyone is slagging it off for one poor game against liverpool away, one of the toughest games all season. against chelsea it was effective; i think we should give it some more time and wait till we have proper players playing it