Brilliant discussion, and great to have regular Magicasts back.

On formations, like Thomas I’m not a fan of the 3-man defence (especially when 2 of those 3 are Burdisso and Piris), but I think it could work well for us if we sign one top-class central defender to sit between Marquinhos and Castan. The Brazillians are quick and very comfortable bringing the ball into midfield, so a quality stopper in the centre who stays deep and ‘captains’ the defence could be the right balance. We have outstanding wing-backs already – Torosidis, as you discussed, but also Balzarretti and potentially Dodo. Given the players we currently have, adapting to a permanent back four might be trickier, and would risk wasting Torosidis.

That said, Greg is spot on about the midfield, and the way we struggle if we’re short of numbers and dynamism in that area. If we go three at the back, I’m not sure how to make the midfield and attack work. Maybe a four-man midfield of Balzaretti-Pjanic-DDR-Torosidis behind a Totti-Destro-Lamela forward line.

I’d love to see DDR fit and firing again, and I don’t doubt that he would thrive in a Mazzarri team, but he’s been so bad this year that if a megabucks club like Man City come calling, we should be looking to rob them. Apart from the doubts about his best role in the team, he just hasn’t looked very fit to me this year. The truth is, I suspect DDR wouldn’t like life outside AS Roma very much because he doesn’t look to me like he wants to work that hard, and at Trigoria he can get away with that. Maybe a new coach could change that, but I wonder if he’ll age badly due to lack of mobility.