The 3-5-2 was fine for this season domestically. But we saw how hard it was to cope in Europe because our 3-5-2 relies too much on players who are not up to snuff in Europe. Pirlo gets run over and run through, our wingbacks offer little offensively, and Bonucci is not as good as a Barza-Chiellini partnership.
It became clear that although we are one of the most athletic teams in Italy, we are not close to the level of Barca/Real/Bayern/Dortmund in terms of pace, strength and attack.
I would really like to bring in some attacking talent and switch to a more aggressive 4-2-3-1 style formation with Pirlo kept in strict rotation against mostly unathletic teams, which is most of Serie A, but not all of it. Bonucci, in my opinion we can sell or rotate him sparingly with Barza and Chiellini. Barzagli and Chiellini is a top CB partnership in the world, there's no doubt about it.
I would like to see something like this:
Lichtsteiner-Barzagli-Chiellini-Left Back
Pogba-Asamoah
Nani-Vidal-Sanchez
Llorente
Yes, in a dream world we could secure some athletic flank players, not necessarily those 2 exact players but players of that skill set. Of course, Mirko, Pepe and even Giovinco can occupy those wide areas as well but I think only Pepe is cut out for a wide role in CL games because of his work rate. Mirko perhaps in short bursts could be effective there but he's quite clearly slowing down a bit.
Asamoah and Marchisio can rotate a bit. Asamoah can perhaps slide into LB against very defensive sides in Serie A. I think we have to give Pogba a much larger role. I think he's up for it.