For me it's 4-3-3 and I've been saying it for a while now.
Reasons:
- Our wingers are non existent in many matches while we play 3-5-2. They simply have no backup on the wings nor they're good enough to carry it on their own. They struggle a lot if our opponent plays with 2 wingers on a side, so they can't really go forward and sometimes have difficulties with defending. Because of that our style of play is very narrow. Teams that play possession type of football must use whole width and height of the pitch to attack successfully. With 3-5-2 we're mostly forced to play through the middle as we can't break through the flanks (even if we do our wingers can't prepare the ball for a decent cross).
- Pressing. With 4-3-3 we're much more aggressive and more successful with getting ball back on their half. Three forwards upfront make it harder for opponent's defense/midfield to play with ball on their half. Pressing is vital to our games as it was one of our main strengths last season.
- Players. Our team is more suited for 4-3-3 and we have more useful players to play this formation. For examle Lichtsteiner was a beast in our 4-3-3 last year while he's not good enough in attack to play as RWB. Pretty much the same goes for De Ceglie who is currently useless while he was our main LWB along with Chiellini last year. He struggled at first but later he was a starter with a good form.
Another example: Giovinco. While Vucinic plays quite well in 3-5-2, Giovinco struggles a lot in this system. We play matches every 3 days this season and we cannot afford Giovinco playing his 50%-70% of potential at best. Giovinco is a squad player, he's got his limitations and he's not Del Piero and he'll never be. We should use him properly or just sell him. His place is on the wing where he'll have more space so he can actually pass or cut inside from the left and shoot on the goal. None of Giovinvo and Vucinic can be considered as prolific strikers. They both are capable of getting about 10-15 goals per season and some assists. It's not good enough as for forwards but it definitely is for wingers.
- Midfield depth. Playing 4-3-3 we gain something else. Asamoah and Isla for rotation with Marchisio and Vidal. We need this a lot. Depth in these positions is very important for us because Vidal and Marchiso are our lungs. They attack, they defend and they deserve rest while Juve plays every 3 days now. Last season we had only Serie A actually so they both were enough, but this season it'll not be so. Asamoah is natural CM while Isla played a lot this position last season in Udinese as he was replacement for Inler. Basta took Isla's position. So this way we'd have actually good back ups. At the moment we have Pogba, Marrone and Giaccherini which is not impressive at all tbh. Let Pogba / Marrone fight tor Pirlo's position then and Giacch could be used as RWF sometimes as he's quite fast and has good stamina for pressing and defending. He can score at times too.
What we currently have is (3-5-2):
Buffon (Storari)
Barzagli (Lucio) - Bonucci - Chiellini (Caceres)
Lichtsteiner (Isla, Pepe) - Vidal (Pogba) - Pirlo - Marchsio (Giaccherini) - Asamoah
Vucinic (Giovinco) - Quag
Other players such as Marrone, De Ceglie are useless in this formation as they barely get their chances.
What we'd have if we switched to 4-3-3 would be:
Buffon (Storari)
Lichtsteiner (Caceres) - Barzagli (Lucio) - Bonucci - Chiellini (De Ceglie)
Vidal (Isla) - Pirlo (Pogba) - Marchsio (Asamoah)
Pepe (Giaccherini) - Quag - Vucinic (Giovinco)
As for me our team looks much better in a 4-3-3 formation. I mean more balanced and bench is very impressive. It's obvious our forward line looks a bit poor, especially CF and right wing, but it's not like we don't have holes in 3-5-2 where we basically need a word class LWB and CF, plus Vucinic's sub cuz Giovinco struggles a lot.
To improve our 4-3-3 I'd actually go for a RWF in the winter (Sanchez, Lavezzi and Nani are struggling in their recent clubs, we could take a shot at one of them) and then in the summer get a striker (Llorente? Dzeko?) and we'd be set.
I'm not saying we should dispose 3-5-2. We should play it when it's needed. Last season we switched between these formations perfectly and it was our asset. I remember when we played Inter with a 4-3-3 and we couldn't break through their defense. We switched to 3-5-2, they got confused and we succeeded. This season we're obsessed with 3-5-2 no matter what. Yesterday we were losing and I can't understand why we didn't switch to 4-3-3 to dominate them even more. Those crosses on Giovinco make me
even today.