Back to the original subject:

3 at the back is coming back in fashion because most teams are playing 2 up-front again.

It was the 1 up-front tactic that killed off 3 at the back.

But 3 at the back wouldn't work for us becasue none of the 3 (Collins, Reid, Tomkins*) are any good at bringing the ball out from the back - that's the key to the system working.

Blimey, people are moaning already about Noble having to come back deep to pick the ball off the 2 centre backs (cos they can't do anything with it), but he'd have to come back to pick the ball up off 3 centre backs if we played 3 at the back, reducing our options even less.

Monk - In the World Cup, Mascherano had to come deep to pick the ball off Garay and Fernandez, but when Demichellis came in for Fernandez in later rounds, Mascherano stopped doing it as Demichelis was able to bring the ball forward.

And at Barsa, when Mascherano goes back it's becasue they're actually changing the formation mid-match to 3 at the back, with the two full backs playing in midfield (Mascherano operating as a 3rd centre back).

*Possibly Tomkins could develop into a more traditional ball-playing West Ham centre-back? I always thought that's the type of player he would be when he first started, but his career's made very little progress over last 5 years, to be honest, and his passing ability doesn't really look that good.