You can try to burn away and to one side of the alien formation to try to force them to come at you from one direction as long as possible, and minimize hits on your sides. Most losses against the aliens are going to be big shots punching through your point defense from the front, missile swarms overloading your point defense, or fast ships getting into your side or rear arcs and punching shots through your side armor.
I'd say you loose too much ships ) 3×3 is the best formation for me. In this formation point defense covers nearby ships.
You can try to burn away and to one side of the alien formation to try to force them to come at you from one direction as long as possible, and minimize hits on your sides. Most losses against the aliens are going to be big shots punching through your point defense from the front, missile swarms overloading your point defense, or fast ships getting into your side or rear arcs and punching shots through your side armor.