In Game Adjustments Not Saving

I had a Champions League Semifinal second leg match this morning. I was down 2-1 after the first leg, having scored 1 away goal. In the second leg I was up 3-1, made a formation change from a 4-1-3-2 to a 4-2-3-1 in the 75th minute, and 3 subs between the 75th and 80th minutes, a DMC for a ST, a DMC/MC for an AMC, and a MR for an AMR. Naturally, this was to protect the lead. Then I go to the in game tactics page to change attacking mentality to defensive, turn off force counterattacks, and and adjust passing style. The game wouldn’t save the changes. So I went in a second time, by now the 85th minute, to re-do the same tactics changes to fit my new formation and players. Again, the game would not save the changes. Well, what do you know, 89th minute goal on the counter by my opponent. A second away goal for them, sending them to the finals and knocking me out. A goal that likely would not have happened had my tactics been saved.

Keep in mind that the other manager was not present for the game, meaning no tactical changes or subs for them. So I had 3 fresh defensive oriented players while they had all tired players. Statistically, I had more possession, shots, shots on target, corners, and a better passing percentage. Both teams had the same number of fouls, though I did have 1 yellow card earlier in the game. Somehow they only had 3 saves, even though I had 8 shots on target. All of this combined is very infuriating from the game. Maybe I’m biased, but the game seemed to reward the other team with a late goal despite my team having a clear advantage. And the fact that the game wouldn’t accept my tactical changes.

I sometimes experience something similar. When I make changes to both formation/substitution and tactics, the substitutions are delayed and I need to make one more small change on the formations and save again to have the changes applied.

What I do to avoid these kind of problems is to make the substitutions first, wait for them to take place in the match, and then change the tactics (force counter on/off etc). Or I do the tactics first, wait about 10 match minutes and then make substitutions.