1 defender & 7 midfielders! I still lost!

[Amane Ito]

Frankly, chance created was 22 vs 20 in the ss, it's pretty much even.
The only flaw in your formation I can see is your right flank being countered (DML is a counter to AMR), you may use blue arrow on the AMR to negate this effect.

If you are really desperate to counter this bs, you can use more backfield players with longpassing to bypass the midfield.

I think harsh restrictions on formation was removed to prevent suspended (sent off) players to radically change the game result when a manager is offline - it happened in the past.

[cookizzz]

...I think harsh restrictions on formation was removed to prevent suspended (sent off) players to radically change the game result when a manager is offline - it happened in the past.

This is a valid point. However, if Nordeus considers the procession ratio on illegal formation unfair, they may revise it to say 70:30 or 65:35.

If they have good match engine, ineffective formation like 2 or less defenders, no midfielder etc need not to be punished through illegal formation rule. The flow of the match should naturally punished the effective formation.