Attack wins matches,defense wins championships!

[Tactician]

Also, as long as you don't concede against a much stronger opponent, you have a chance. One goal from your players, be it from open play or from set-pieces and the work is done. Sometimes, such goals come late in matches, but they do come. Last year (2015), I beat a team full of scout players bought from the scout's list 2-0. Both goals came late in the match.

[Abhinavsharma]

To be true I played attacking for first 10 season but now I have more affinity towards defensive play.
As I got shocking result.I defeated such teams which were impossible were to defeat lol

[Wiesse]

So the rule of thumb is—
-If you're the favorite: attack and grab a lot of goals. Low press and zonal marking to save energy. Use offside trap and 3 defence and maybe a DMC too if required. Two strikers are also ideal
-If against evenly matched opponent: play your natural game.
-If they're the favorite: Park the Bus, but keep the ball. Defensive, mixed and short passing, no CA force, low press, man-to-man marking (it's extremely helpful to defend, tho zonal can be used to save energy). And of course a suitable formation, like 4-5-1V, 5-2-2-1 or 5 defence/4 defender+1 DMC (5-6 players in own half)

I am most of the time favorite, but the attacking mentality isn't always good against weak teams. you can grab goals if you play with normal mentality.
The orders always depends on the oppenent.

[Al Svanberg]

I am most of the time favorite, but the attacking mentality isn't always good against weak teams. you can grab goals if you with normal mentality.
The orders always depends on the oppenent.

I am sure it differs some from formation to formation, but this is definitely my experience too.

If I push forward too much, I just stop scoring goals almost and against weaker opponents. Like the other game I was up 6-0 after 37 minutes when the opponent got his DMC sent off. The other manager wasn't online and hence no changes was made, but I set my team to attack hard and pressure high. It felt like my possession got up towards 90%, but I only scored 2 more goals. It is often like that for me with both my accounts that play different styles, 5-4-1 and 4-2-3-1. Seems like I need the other team to get up field a bit to get more space to attack in.