Game is far too random in lower leagues

I've played before, I know what to expect, however the game seems all over the place for me. One week I'm beating the top of the league club, next week I'm losing in the FA Cup to a team in a lower league. I assign tight marking and pressing to a danger player, next thing I see he's less marked than a newer pressed pound coin.

I've tried reloading a game just before I played said lower league team, changed a few tactics around and instead of losing 1-0, I lose 3-0. It seems that I may aswell roll a dice to decide my tactics for the next game as trying to defeat the opponents tactics just results in completely stupid results.

Not to mention of course the completely (still) bizarre behaviour of some of the players kicking the ball out of touch for no apparent reason and standing around seemingly having a picnic. I thought the game may have improved from FM2006 (my last major time investment), but to be honest it all seems more ridiculous now. Admittedly there are some good things, like personal chats, player recommendations etc, but it's hard to see that any of this has an effect compared to the (seemingly) massive randomness of the game.

The game flat out sucks in the lower leagues. I played 1 season with Torquay and it was the biggest of 1 week of my life ever.

Dont confuse what you see in some of those random animations and what is happening in the ME. Players in lower leagues are far less accurate with thie passing so sometimes they pass the ball out of bounds. Sure, the animation doesnt express this in the best way possible; but there are also lots of beautiful footballing in lower leagues.

And there are always some upsets in the Cup competitions; sometimes shocking upsets.

Just try to enjoy the madness.