Quote Originally Posted by khris View Post
"Silly ways such as changing names of players, their jersey numbers and badges."

lol confuse the system, basically xD

Regarding:
"By losing friendlies- I hope the game engine recognises this as one of those lost matches"

I can confirm you that nope, friendlies and regular season are different game features, the game don't save a losing streak that comes from friendlies.
Personally I think that what works mostly is to prepare 2 "very different" tactics -opposite practically- and be ready to change important players during the match... as it re-calculates the simulation.
Khris, I don't know your experience but in FA games I noticed the MOM and some other high rated players do poorly or average in the second leg. So I started benching and switching them in the second leg and my results are slightly better.

Looks like there is a programme that checks performances and tries to regulate it in the FA games