Every wannabe manager who wants to claim "I changed something" goes from the 4 back line to the 5 back back line. If it worked for Juventus and, until now, for Chelsea, it doesn't mean it will work for everyone.
Juventus dominates an Italian football because they spend the most money, they could play whatever system. In Alegri's first year they played 4-4-2 and still came first (with a midfield of Pirlo, Marchisio, Pogba and Vidal)

This 3-5-2 formation basically puts in an extra center back. That's it. You take out an attacking player and put in an extra central defender. Not even a side defender, but a CENTRAL DEFENDER. It's a great tactic when you meet better teams, when you play qualifying matches or away games.

But when you play in a championship and you'd rather have a win and a loss from 2 games instead of 2 draws (cause 3 points are better than 2) then having an extra center back in the first 11 is not what you want.

What was the team against Everton? No Townsend or Zaha, Remy came on and Tomkins got a start. Notice? Remy for Townsend, offensive player for offensive player. Tomkins for Zaha, defensive player for offensive player.

Yes, Schlupp was a great improvement from Ward, because he's basically a left wing and Ward wasn't even left footed.

Whoever was around in 2002 remembers that this had happened before. The Italian teams were highly regarded and their 5 defenders system was exported in all the world. Pretty much every team at the 2002 World Cup played 3-5-2.

But after that....everyone woke up. People saw that teams scored a lot less. Everywhere. So pretty much every team gave up that extra defender for an extra attacking man.

It doesn't work for Sunderland, it doesn't work for Hull, it doesn't work for Watford.
It only works for Chelsea and it's been recently tried at Everton too, though we'll see in the long term. They have very offensive fullbacks though in Baines and Coleman.

Our Back 4 has been the main reason we are where we are, trying to sure it up with an extra man and matching the team you're playing makes sense and to be fair it did work whilst the game was 11 v 11.

"They got his own song 'He's just too good for you', it's quite unbelievable but when you see it and he's facing up someone - I actually feel sorry for them, 'Cos he actually is" - Ian Holloway

Are you ever going to say anything positive. I thought the system worked really well for us today and we almost got a point against a very good everton side who put 4 past city last week. What was more important to me was that every player gave 10% today and were shattered at the end. Something I haven't seen for a long while. If we play like we did today against the 'lower ' reams I feel confident we will pick up points.

Thought we looked good at 3-5-2. Was only when Remy went off knackered we had to go back to the usual s*** scared suicidal deep defending and looked s***e again.

Number 1, it frees up more attacking wingbacks which suits Schlupp down to the ground and Ward has his moments going forwards. For a team leaking goals it adds an extra man whilst defending but also allowed us to play 2 strikers and keep a relatively solid midfield.

Number 2, we were playing a better team who also deployed the same system so we tried to nullify them whilst getting our strongest 11 out. On both counts it worked until we were down to 10 but then, 10 vs 11 is always a disadvantage.

All in all, whether you like the system or not we stopped a form team, who had banged 4 goals past one of the best in the league, from battering us and nearly got a vital point that we desperately need.

"They got his own song 'He's just too good for you', it's quite unbelievable but when you see it and he's facing up someone - I actually feel sorry for them, 'Cos he actually is" - Ian Holloway

One of my favourite palace squads played 3-5-2 under Harry Bassett back in the 90s. Lovely football we played then. Hopkin was on fire that season behind the front two.

"How can I remember to keep it all together when half the moon is taken away?"