I am sorry if this is a "duh" moment, but I thought I'd be worth discussing since so many have their theories about our tactics. It's rather long.
I watched every one of Inter's matches during the time Mancini managed Inter, because of my interest in one of Inter's player.
Short version:
I don't think we'll have two defensive midfielders and one attacking midfielder in the middle with two wingers. We might play like Mancini did in Inter, which was 4-3-3. The three strikers have few defensive duties and we won't have an attacking midfielder in the middle, we will have three DM/CMs. On top of those we will have three attackers, one of them might sometimes drop a bit below them (to act as attacking midfielder/supporting striker). Call it 4-3-1-2 if you will.
Oh, and: I think this is the reason Ireland and Bellamy are forced out. Ireland's role as attacking midfielder will be taken up by Silva and Robinho, who are much, much better than him with this style of play, it's how they play in their national teams. When we change to 4-3-3 (against weaker teams or if we need to score a goal late) Ireland won't be able to play striker, but Silva and Robinho can do it.
Bellamy's role as winger doesn't exist in this formation. He may be a good:ish striker, but in the end our other alternatives are much better than him. Mancini realized this.
_________
Long version:
During spring Mancini was forced to continue playing Hughes style of 4-5-1, it was hard for him to adapt his real style of playing without having the capable players for it. He changed our way of playing by giving the players new instructions, but in the end the formation itself was more or less the same. The player's roles were the same.
In Inter he used to play 4-3-3, but the difference is that he didn't use a attacking midfielder like we did with Hughes (role of Ireland, Elano and sometimes SWP). He used three defensive, creative midfielders.
He tried this here. He put Vieira, Barry and De Jong together as midfielders. We went crazy on here, claiming it was negative and very defensive minded.
The difference with Inter was that they had players like Zanetti, Cambiasso and Vieira (in his prime, or right after). All these three players were DM's, but also had a lot of creativity and determination, specially Cambiasso.
Old Vieira, Barry and specially De Jong all lack creativity. So basically we had three capable DMs who all, at best, could pass the ball to the sides. Never forward. Cambiasso and Zanetti, in comparison, did beautiful crosses for Inter and scored goals by braking forward. We failed, because the CMs couldn't support the attackers good enough. This forced Bellamy, Johnson and Tevez/Adebayor to do it all themself without the support of the midfielders.
So basically with the signings of Yaya and Milner he now has more creative CMs who also are ready to play defensively.
Thanks to three strong CMs we can have three really offensive players on top, three strikers instead of one strikers and two wingers (Johnson - Tevez - Bellamy).
Basically, what I'm saying is that we may not play with Silva as our AM, with Yaya and De Jong covering him up. I think we'll play Yaya, Milner and De Jong as midfielders with Silva acting as striker.
As I said, this might have been obvious, but everywhere I look on these forums people's line-ups looks like this:
-------De Jong - Yaya
Johnson --------------- Silva
------------ Tevez
-------------Adebayor
With Tevez being close to supporting Adebayor, but in a free role. I think that's wrong.
We played like this against Valencia in the first 30 minutes:
Hart
Richards - Boateng - Kompany - Kolarov
Yaya - De Jong - Barry
Tevez - Adebayor - Silva
(EDIT:
As people have point out below one of the attackers can drop down below them, creating:
Yaya - De Jong - Barry
-------Silva
Tevez - Adebayor)
To me, it looks very similar to what Inter play. Plain 4-3-3. (EDIT: 4-3-1-2 if you will)
Anyway, moving on from the midfielders. That leaves the three attackers. Basically, last year Bellamy and Johnson was forced to run straight down as normal side midfielders to defend. Basically we switched over to 4-5-1 when defending. I don't think they'll be as defensive minded this season, because one of the CMs will go out and cover for them on the sides. That will give Robinho and Silva both the chance to play like they do in their national teams. They will have much more space to do what they want.
I think we've earlier, in America, have played like this but with the new players out on holiday we couldn't really play it correctly. I think that's why we didn't perform well, because once again we had non-creative CMs.
Jo, acting in Tevez role, ran down and covered on the right side but never as defensive as Bellamy and Johnson was last year. (Few) People claimed he was lazy but I don't think he was supposed to go as deep. He was acting as a part of three strikers.
I watched every one of Inter's matches during the time Mancini managed Inter, because of my interest in one of Inter's player.
Short version:
I don't think we'll have two defensive midfielders and one attacking midfielder in the middle with two wingers. We might play like Mancini did in Inter, which was 4-3-3. The three strikers have few defensive duties and we won't have an attacking midfielder in the middle, we will have three DM/CMs. On top of those we will have three attackers, one of them might sometimes drop a bit below them (to act as attacking midfielder/supporting striker). Call it 4-3-1-2 if you will.
Oh, and: I think this is the reason Ireland and Bellamy are forced out. Ireland's role as attacking midfielder will be taken up by Silva and Robinho, who are much, much better than him with this style of play, it's how they play in their national teams. When we change to 4-3-3 (against weaker teams or if we need to score a goal late) Ireland won't be able to play striker, but Silva and Robinho can do it.
Bellamy's role as winger doesn't exist in this formation. He may be a good:ish striker, but in the end our other alternatives are much better than him. Mancini realized this.
_________
Long version:
During spring Mancini was forced to continue playing Hughes style of 4-5-1, it was hard for him to adapt his real style of playing without having the capable players for it. He changed our way of playing by giving the players new instructions, but in the end the formation itself was more or less the same. The player's roles were the same.
In Inter he used to play 4-3-3, but the difference is that he didn't use a attacking midfielder like we did with Hughes (role of Ireland, Elano and sometimes SWP). He used three defensive, creative midfielders.
He tried this here. He put Vieira, Barry and De Jong together as midfielders. We went crazy on here, claiming it was negative and very defensive minded.
The difference with Inter was that they had players like Zanetti, Cambiasso and Vieira (in his prime, or right after). All these three players were DM's, but also had a lot of creativity and determination, specially Cambiasso.
Old Vieira, Barry and specially De Jong all lack creativity. So basically we had three capable DMs who all, at best, could pass the ball to the sides. Never forward. Cambiasso and Zanetti, in comparison, did beautiful crosses for Inter and scored goals by braking forward. We failed, because the CMs couldn't support the attackers good enough. This forced Bellamy, Johnson and Tevez/Adebayor to do it all themself without the support of the midfielders.
So basically with the signings of Yaya and Milner he now has more creative CMs who also are ready to play defensively.
Thanks to three strong CMs we can have three really offensive players on top, three strikers instead of one strikers and two wingers (Johnson - Tevez - Bellamy).
Basically, what I'm saying is that we may not play with Silva as our AM, with Yaya and De Jong covering him up. I think we'll play Yaya, Milner and De Jong as midfielders with Silva acting as striker.
As I said, this might have been obvious, but everywhere I look on these forums people's line-ups looks like this:
-------De Jong - Yaya
Johnson --------------- Silva
------------ Tevez
-------------Adebayor
With Tevez being close to supporting Adebayor, but in a free role. I think that's wrong.
We played like this against Valencia in the first 30 minutes:
Hart
Richards - Boateng - Kompany - Kolarov
Yaya - De Jong - Barry
Tevez - Adebayor - Silva
(EDIT:
As people have point out below one of the attackers can drop down below them, creating:
Yaya - De Jong - Barry
-------Silva
Tevez - Adebayor)
To me, it looks very similar to what Inter play. Plain 4-3-3. (EDIT: 4-3-1-2 if you will)
Anyway, moving on from the midfielders. That leaves the three attackers. Basically, last year Bellamy and Johnson was forced to run straight down as normal side midfielders to defend. Basically we switched over to 4-5-1 when defending. I don't think they'll be as defensive minded this season, because one of the CMs will go out and cover for them on the sides. That will give Robinho and Silva both the chance to play like they do in their national teams. They will have much more space to do what they want.
I think we've earlier, in America, have played like this but with the new players out on holiday we couldn't really play it correctly. I think that's why we didn't perform well, because once again we had non-creative CMs.
Jo, acting in Tevez role, ran down and covered on the right side but never as defensive as Bellamy and Johnson was last year. (Few) People claimed he was lazy but I don't think he was supposed to go as deep. He was acting as a part of three strikers.