Pardew is assessing his options for Saturday’s Premier League home game against Swansea City, for which right-back Mathieu Debuchy could be fit after a six-game absence.
Alan Pardew: “I tried to play three and have a look at it, and we did a really good job.
“I thought we had a good base to the game in terms of how we were set up.
“We’re obviously overloaded with quality centre-backs.
“It’s something I’m looking at as we have Colo, Tayls, Mapou (Yanga-Mbiwa) and Willo.
“As far as I’m concerned, we have to get a system that works for us with the players we have available.
“We’ve got 10 senior players missing – that’s a problem.”