The rating alone tells me or you nothing.
Some players are busts, never play up to their lvl. I have been buying top priced nordgens for 3 seasons now and there are just about as many flops as there are successes.
I have had to sell off very talented players and sometimes several times in a row at the same position before finding a player that plays well consistently. It took until almost 3 full seasons to find a single RB who didn't have 5/6 ratings all the time. Then I found one and he plays well. CM was even worse, I then finally hit on one.
It seems to me to take time to build a side that has both quality and consistent performances from players.
After all that I suggest you go look at the form from the last 5 games in each competition and see who has been getting 7/8/9's and who keeps getting 4/5/6's. You have to find new players for anyone in the second category. No matter how high their rating or their value.
I know nothing of these troll results you guys speak of. I have never lost to a single team that was 1* or more below myself. I have lost back to back CL finals but the first one was all of 1 point below me and the 2nd actually had a slightly higher rating. My one cup tie loss came to a team of roughly equal quality, the league has been a breeze except for season 2 when I drew an equally skilled team and lost a very tight race.