Not a huge fan of the 3-5-2 at all, and was praying that we wouldn't start with it. Definitely agree that it can leave us exposed to counter attacks, and doesn't seem well-suited against teams with quick direct widemen.
But - the way I saw it, we definitely made the switch at half-time. Not when Kolarov came on - he just slotted in on the left of midfield, and Silva played kind of from the right through til half time. But as soon as we came out second half you could see we'd made the change with Kompany on the right of Nasti, Clichy on the left, Maicon and Kolarov as wing-backs. Zabaleta signalling '5' could (and I think did) mean nothing more than we keep playing with the '5', in response to whether it stays the same or are we switching back to a 4.
And for what it is worth, I think the system did work, certainly initially. Kompany looked able to get across and double-up on Ronaldo much more quickly and he offered little genuine threat second half (up to the goal!). And the goals were ultimately down to individual mistakes and/or bad luck. Garcia could perhaps have closed down Marcelo more quickly, unlucky with the deflection. Barry and Yaya should have done better to close down Di Maria for the second, I thought. Not really sure how the switch in formation would affect the ability of our midfielders to get across and close down those spaces? For the third, Vinny should have i) been over quicker and ii) not ducked.
Like I say, don't really like the formation, but think it is wrong to suggest that it was the problem last night.
And I agree with whoever said that the guys on zonal marking have no greater credentials than any other football fan - Cox sometimes makes good points, but just as often talks nonsense. And a lot of the stuff on the site is self-involved guff.
