may be one of reasons you finished out of CL reach and top4 last season is bcz you didn't applied your skills once get them and applied them only at start of this reason, not promoted and not playing CL worth 10 time the amount of money lost than saved
the game engine go crazy at times, so probability of you losing facing lower side will be reduced if your players increased their quality .. ex: i draw facing 2 teams who were 12-18 QT less than me in one of those stupid games when your strikers forget how to score a goal, but played them now again, and beat them as difference in quality increased, despite they improved too so had to be more ready