Test the players VS a 1* team, to oversize the internal programming. The game assign internal roles of contribution once a player join your squad, these roles are limited so you cant have 15 players scoring 40 goals each or 7 super aggressive players.
Here, there's he differance between a good team, -well trained, using boosters, particular drills etc- and a ideal team. You need to understand how your players are programmed internally, so, which roles the engine assigned to them, then your boosters can be used more efficently, because you can not select a random ST and create a CR7 at your own will. The player have to have predetermined conditions assigned to perorm as a key player/1st class.
And thats why we've seen people spending 200 euros month, or even training mutants kinda properly, but the team seems stuck. All is about internal roles of contribution assigned by the engine.
Then these roles allow players to be shown more or less often, this means that each player have, animations assigned.
There are 2 powers, the contributive, and the power of dominance. The contributive refers to the effective chances, key player and, contributive scorer, assister, FK man, corner man... some players score 1 time always in 2 games, key players in 4-5 consecutive matches etc..
The ratings tell you the behavior of each player, so you can predict who will have a "push", and thats how I manipulate ratings, forcing a general drop in the entire 11 in the previous match before a final, to earn a push during the final.
The dominance power, the 2nd power, refeers to the animation slots assignation.
A player with high dominance, but low contribution, will cover many slots to just score maybe, 1 goal, then the match will look like stuck.
In the opposite way, a perfect programmed player will have dominance+contribution, and the game will look like fluid, having constantly wins by 4-0, 6-0 etc
I think we all had the sensation of a fluid or stuck game, so this is the reason.
By testing your players vs a 1* team you will see what players appear, the power they have, who are the aggressive players, the neutral ones -that don't show up in the animations after the simplification, once the engine reduces the team to 6-7 players to be displayed for a particular scenario- so, testing, makes the differance.