Yeah 4-5-1 V is definitely the best counter for that. Did you make sure you had focus passing down both flanks? And hard tackling? (With own half/zonal defence and neither of the bottom boxes ticked?
Attacking/normal/defensive and long/short/mixed are personal preference (Or depend on your situation), but generally I'd go for attacking + long or attacking + mixed.
If you had all of those options, and your players were all at 99% condition/moral, then it could simply be a combination of bad luck + lesser player quality if you consistently lost. As winning is a combination of formation, orders, conditioning/moral and player quality.
You could potentially look into dropping your AMR or AML and replacing them with another ST or AMC stacked to one side (then change orders to pass down left or right flank), that would put a bit more pressure on 1x side and could be good, particularly if your opponent was a bit weaker on one side. Or replace the AMR or AML with an extra MC for extra possession.
That's my 2c