What I think caused you to get beat, was the programming code of the game engine. Some seasons it seems to favor offense, other defense. My team this season was better with defense + counter-attacks, so I suspect teams using Defense + counters, had the advantage over normal and attacking setups this seasons, when everything else was equal.
I had been playing with normal and occasionally switching to attack. I was still doing decent, since I reached the cup final, but there were some losses and draws along the way, before eventually losing to a 4-1-4-1 in the cup final. After this I switch my 4-5-1v from normal mentality to defense + counters and my goal production shot up tremendously, including 7-0 and 5-0 wins in the last 2 CL matches. Whereas when using normal/attack, my offense was stagnant more often.