Short opinion- absolutely yes, you can and should have an impact on player ratings during a match (both yours and opponent's).

Ratings are fickle. This game probably means you have missed something, that pressing or passing strategy was a poor match for this case, for example. I do believe that players can have bad days where substitution is the right answer, for some reason. They also may not keep up well with the action, and certainly don't predict the future; I often sub my ST late in the game only to have a goal before the swap, and my DR sometimes seems to "warm up" starting low and ending high. It's not clear to anyone, pressing up your attacker doesn't mean + ratings boost or goals.

Advice is to watch and experiment. Try arrows, passing, and mentality changes to start.