Well, 'nothing' worked decently since last season. My preferred formations of the past such as 3N-2W-2-1-2, 4-1-2-1-2, 3-5-2, 3-4-3 have been like fails since last season and preferred formations of many in this game, for example the 4-5-1 V, which you can see in the 4-1 case above clearly failed playing against a 4-1(MC)-3(WAM)-2 (with opposing manager absent).
I don't know what is going on but many things have not been making much sense in this game. I tried all sort of football styles, especially those that should be superior to what the opponents been using, but still a lot of unsatisfactory results.