It was hard to assess this game.
I don't know what formation was officially announced, but my eye at the game showed a 5-2-3 which automatically turned into a 3-4-2-1 offensively when Ronald/RJ push up. It served it's purpose well, despite the soft goal given up. Matarrita was great and RJ was very good. I like them serving the ball in. Visually we may have looked bogged down, but that is what the formation is built for...a more locked-down counter attacking football tactic. Our transition was really good, except we couldn't capitalize on chances.
When the Pirlo/Lampard switch happened, we went back to a 4 back line. It would automatically open the game up. Even though Pirlo was off yesterday, it was more or less the formation/tactic change that opened things up. Which is a good thing to have the legit ability to make tactical changes mid-game and have it work.
At first I thought he was protecting Eirik..but now my thinking is that PV understands that we can concede goals in the regular season and recover, but we can't do that in the playoffs. We need to tighten it up. I liked it, but I'm used to watching Italian, especially Juve style football. It may be boring, but it generally wins.