experimental formations

The second approach you mentioned, was something I never tried before, but sounds to me like you said, its not producing the best play. In contrast, I come to belive that formations are not the most important tactical advantage of any team, but they do make a difference, if done right.
132 with first approach, is very much practised by our and (at least was)Spanish team, and as much as I could see lately, the English also. The problem lies, that if contact between 1 and 3 is not working right, then the team is basically playing with 5 players.

222 front-back rotation is something I'm also very keen to try out, to see where the problems of this rotation lies. It should be one hell of a strong formation both in defence and offence, provided that players can stand it playing. I think I remember, that french B national team experimented with some similar rotations about a decade ago, but found it not worth the effort...