If he used red arrows on the AM's, would explain. If he set passing on the middle, or mixed, instead of full sides, too. If the opponent set back blue arrows on his midfielders to contain ams, same as before. There are so many variabiles in the stuff that it's hard to tell.
So far 4-5-1 V and 4-1-2-1-2 never failed to counter when i used them.