Don’t be too hard on yourself mate. There are always some top managers who are as good, if not even better, as us who can outperform in a 1-match final (a 2-legged tie then we could set up for a perfect counter for the 2nd leg, but a 1-off could be quite difficult when we haven’t got the rub of the green).
Assuming drills being equally-levelled or similar, I tend to train subs in an ‘opposite’ dimension to hopefully make a difference on impactful substitution.
Eg. If my main AM is specialised in shooting & finishing and ST on speed, then my corresponding sub of that 2 positions would be having training mainly on crossing/passing and header and positioning - it is obvious that the subs’ best stat may not even match the worst of first team’s, but for me those subs have to be about trying to shuffle as much of a disadvantaged preset of conditions in certain matches where we ‘should’ loss (really sucks - but I do believe I have won too many matches when on paper I shouldn’t) as hopefully shifting the balance in my favour when first team’s best strengths are being nullified.
With typically high whites, what I would do is pack that area with +1 player or +1.5 player (eg. Opponents 4-4-2 with high whites’ STs, then I would play a 3-1-4-1-1 with a flat and tight DL-DC-DR plus a DMC pulled as close to own goal as possible), pull a bit backward towards own goal and on back-arrow, and then apply defensive bonus throughout, then hopefully by 60th min not losing by more than 1 goal and shift to 3-4-1-2 high-pressing & hard tackling to win or draw with better conditions). My focus is on ‘maximising’ our defenders’ whites with defensive bonus plus squeezing all space of attackers with the number of defenders + DMC(s).
Definitely get how you feel as I had been through that exact feeling of losing just a single trophy after all those grand slams seasons after seasons. You will be feeling a lot better when you get all those trophies back by end of next season. Hehe!![]()