NoLogo

Well 3 defenders is actually pretty old. I can remember that the 3-5-2 was still the most dominant system in Germany in the early 90s only gradually teams shifted to four at the back and 4-4-2 became the standard until the beginning of the next millennium where another shift towards the 4-2-3-1 occurred.

With more and more teams shifting towards a 5 man midfield and only one striker it makes sense to shift one of your defenders into the midfield again to regain the advantage the 4-5-1/4-2-3-1 formation once offered over the the 4-4-2 formation.

So basically something like Barca played at the club world cup which with our players could look like this:


If need be Jones can fall back into center next to Vidic and help covering if they try to exploit the middle when Smalling and Evans have to defend players out wide.