Really don't understand what was wrong...

So today I matched up against the First place on my league, He is currently with 8 wins and 0 loses\draws which is pretty impressive considerd that his team is 90% and mine 96%. He played 4-1-2-1-2 ND in all of his games and won 3-0 even against someone with 105%..; Heard from alot of people in this forum that recommended 3-5-2 V style to be the best against ND, I set it, and waited for the match to start.
Not gonna tell you guys all the story but I just ended up losing to him 4-0, 0 free kicks btw...
I really don't get how it went like that, I played with the advice from few posts from this forum.
anyways just wanted to hear what you guys think about 4-1-2-1-2 ND fomation and from your experience how can I really gonna beat it?

I'm currently using 4-1-2-1-2ND and recently I lost against the classic 4-3-3(dmc,aml,amr) and also lost against the 4-3-3(three st). Both teams are weaker than me but they kicked my ass 4-2 and 5-3 in both quarters cup and champions league. I guess those 2 formation can go against 4-1-2-1-2ND. I'm not sure how the 4-3-3(three st) defeated me but I'm pretty sure the 4-3-3 classic defeated me with defensive and attack through both flanks