With Jose, what I don't get is that he took TW to the club world cup and rolled out a genuine 3-4-2-1 with wingers as wide men
And he went to this tournament where, as @AlfStamp correctly says, the onus is on development not results and plays a very defensive 5-3-2 (for the most part)
I do wish the coaches at U17 level were brave enough to play teams to both the coaches strengths and the players strength and not worry about what the results might be or what people might think. However I do think that needs to be a clearly stated ambition form NZF so that if a result does go pear shaped while a team is trying to play in a long term progressive manner the public arent too hard on them. I wonder if a defensive 532 was a result of fear of results
The 8-1 drubbing by Argentina just before the tournament started, certainly wouldn't have helped. Not sure what formation they played in that warmup game but probably lead to a more defensive mindset by the coaches.