I thought our defensive structure in the 5-3-2 was fantastic. Ridenton/McGlinchey did a great job of pressing the fullbacks when they got high, and Paracki and the other CM were then able to shift centrally to cover the gap. One striker dropped in on the deepest midfielder and we were able to number up nicely and blunt their attacks. It was pretty clear that they've had those positional plays drilled into them because of the consistency of how they pulled it off.
We looked less threatened in the 4-2-3-1 because we simply had more ball, but I think we're far more vulnerable to counter attacks with that shape given our CBs extreme lack of pace.
Kalezic looks like he knows what he's doing from a defending standpoint, and the players are starting to execute it properly now.