They are all good tactics in their own right and each have their own strengths and weaknessess when facing different opposition, I'd say play the formation that fits your best XI the most, I do like 4-4-2 classic, 4-5-1 V-style and 4-1-2-1-2 narrow diamond but I'm not a fan of the 4-1-2-1-2 wide diamond because you have nobody in the centre of the pitch, I use red arrows on DL/DR's and blue arrows on AML/AMR's.

As for orders this depends on what formation your using, 4-4-2 can use flanks or mixed passing, 4-5-1 v-style focuses on the flanks and 4-1-2-1-2 narrow diamond uses through the middle, I'd always use own half pressing, normal tackling and zonal marking.