I've seen many posts on here by managers complaining about how they lost to teams with lower ratings than themselves, but I think the "Overview" average player ratings can be misleading.
Today I have qualified for the Cup Final against one of my T11 friend's. I am level 7 and he is level 8. Now on the comparison page, the ratings given for our 2 teams are: Me..52.0, Him..49.3, so on that reading, I might have the slight edge. However, the average is taken on ALL the players in a squad, and my back-up players are stronger than his. I have calculated the player averages of just the probale starting 11's of our 2 clubs, and it produces a different outcome, (Me..54.82, Him..55.82). So it shows that his first team is better than mine, but overall, my SQUAD is the better.
So when people start saying, "Why did I lose", they should take into account that teams are not always what they seem on the comparison page.