A lot has to do with tactics consistent with daily training as well as properly utilizing player skills. Some managers can develop a tactical and training strategy that is very potent with their style of play. This means that their team works great for 95% of opponents due to their superior work off the field. Training is key to success as well as arguably players skills in line with your tactics. There might be two 7-star strikers, 1 of which works really well for your team the other not. You can largely identify which striker you would want by knowing which of the white skills are important to you. Although there is this hidden "play style" metric that Nordeus seems to have which you can't know until you played the striker for at least a few games. In short, these mangers found a way to make their player skills, tactics, formation, and training very coherent with each other.

Using the best counter formation for every match has not been of the greatest success to me. Rather, I look at the underlying principle of the counter formation and utilize that in my standard formation. The varying strengths and talent of players are a factor that counter strategies don't include. You need to know what your team does best, and that is what you must try to do.