The 3-5-2 sees three centre backs holding down the defense, two wingbacks on the outside of the mid-field who are bombing up and down the sidelines all game, three midfielders to control or clog the middle of the field, and two attackers up top. And three at the back has really become the next big thing in global soccer. This is more or less the formation USA recently rolled out in World Cup Qualifying against Mexico at the Azteca, matching their best performance at the Mexican fortress in the process. The beauty of this formation is that it allows for a team to use the lineup both defensively and offensively.

Other variations on three at the back have been used to great success this past year. Arsenal, in the English Premier League, managed to save their season, and very likely Arsene Wenger’s job, by implementing a three at the back system. Wenger’s new system was more of a 3-4-2-1, something Wenger had never attempted in his previous twenty one years of managing Arsenal. This is the same formation that they rolled out against Chelsea in the FA Cup this year, pulling the shocking upset and leaving a forgettable season with a trophy.

The shock victory over Chelsea because Chelsea had just won the English Premier League a few weeks earlier. Chelsea too had implemented a three at the back system that ran wild on the rest of the league this year. Chelsea's first year manager, Antonio Conte, had run this system before at the Italian giants Juventus and as the Italian national team manager. Conte put this plan into practice after a, get this, shock defeat to Arsenal about a fourth of the way through the season. Now with Juventus and Italy, Conte had the advantage of using arguably the three best defenders in the world, but at Chelsea he proved the system could work if it was drilled properly.