So after posting this I bought a recommended defender and a recommended striker next time round. Pretty much wiped out my tokens I've been saving up for a few seasons.

I've won every game since.

Today I even beat the top club, several percent above me (pretty epic when I'm at 112% now) with several nearly 8* players, all of which had a special ability.

Same tactics, same team apart from 2 players, and I'm now only 4 points off first.

That idea that Nordeus was punishing me for not spending loads of tokens....