I'm playing with Sunderland, first season, 33 games so far with Sunfire V3. I'm 8th in the Premier League, 6 points behind Spurs on 5th, 11 points ahead of Leicester on 9th. So, with a bit of luck and good results in the final 5 games I can even qualify for Europe.
In the summer I got Dwight Gayle from Palace on loan, was my only incoming transfer until January. In January I bought Tom Carroll from Spurs, Alexander Esswein from Augsburg and Nick Powell on loan from Man Utd. I've lost Adam Johnson in January to Man Utd as he didn't want to renew his contract and with only 6 months left I've sold him for € 9 million to Utd, anything better then see him leaving him on a free afterwards.
So far I got 14 wins, 9 draws and 10 losses. 48 goals scored, 40 against. And I'm in the semi-finals of the FA Cup where I'll meet Man Utd on Wembley. I think those results are excellent knowing I'm playing with Sunderland and except Gayle in the summer and Esswein and Carroll in January, I didn't do any transfers worth to mention while I've lost my best winger in Johnson in January. I'm rotating a lot and keep my best players fit for the FA Cup-games since I'm sure about Premier League-survival. Pantilimon-Jones-Kaboul-O'Shea-Van Aanholt-Cattermole-Larsson-Carroll-M'Vila-Esswein-Gayle is my strongest set up for this tactic. Coates, Matthews, Bridcutt, Lens, Toivonen, Gomez, Rodwell and Defoe play alot also. Wes Brown's injured all the time, and when fit I loan him out to League One-clubs as I'm playing a young centerback from the academy to develop his stats quicker as he got the talent to become a worthwile successor of O'Shea in two years time.
Outgoing transfers: Danny Graham - Reading, Fabio Borini - Wolfsburg, Will Buckley - Fulham, Valentin Roberge - Hull, Adam Johnson - Man Utd. Those transfers (summer + January) gave me the funds to buy Esswein and Carroll (as the Sunderland-chairman's sitting tight on his money you don't get much to spend on transfers neither on wages).
I'm trying to bring in more English lads on lower wages and to get rid of overpaid foreigners who aren't contributing anything in terms of quality-wages.
Sunderland really have some overpaid players in this game in terms of stats-wages.
Anyway, League Cup went well, I've got in the fifth round (so met the board's expectations) where Chelsea slaughtered me 5-1 at the Stadium of Light. 3 days later we met in the league where we won 1-2 at Stamford Bridge with nine men. Got 1 red card early in the game, another one in the 68th minute, went 1-0 down in the 72nd minute, Gayle scored the equaliser in the 76th minute and I don't remember who but he scored the winning goal in the 84th minute. When one man down I've followed the instructions in the OP, with the second one off, I removed the CM (s) and continued without central midfielders. I turned out to be a good idea...
Anyway, I enjoy this save a lot, especially as I hope to get more funds from the new tv-deal in the summer so I can add some new players to the squad as some others are getting old (Brown, O'Shea) or aren't good enough for my future plans (Pantilimon, Gomez, and others).
The odd thing however is that I'm the 5th best team in the league in terms of points won away from home while at home I'm only the 14th in the league. Away it seems this tactic is all or nothing as I have 9 wins, 1 draw and 8 losses. At home I'm drawing far too many games to be considered a "home-side".