Well if you read my point is that you might have got it wrong, you might have been unlucky. Although 29% possession says you were somewhat unable to cope. If you really were as sound as you think you, with such a good side, you don't think you could have done more than 29% and 1-1? Considering that many people do actually beat Man City, that's an obvious pointer that its nowt to do with the "ME and AI" since that is the same for everyone. Preparation does not guarantee victory, it can only help push the odds in your favour
The bold is wrong. All other factors being equal (fitness, form, happiness, motivation, squad blending, pitch condition, and most of all, the opposition etc), your team instructions are on you. Neither the ME nor the AI "control" your input.
If you cant make your team play like the AI does, then that DOES point to how you set up and how you play. The ME doesn't control anything, its exactly the same for both teams, it just receives the inputs from you ( though its obviously infinitely more complicated than that).
The AI also has nothing to do with your "inputs" during 90 minutes. The Match Engine and the AI are two completely separate things.
If the AI can do it, so can you. The AI only uses the TC and the shouts ( in relation to the attributes and preferences of the manager in charge of said team)
There is no rubber banding, there is nothing the AI can do in 90 minutes that you cannot do, there is plenty you can do that the AI cannot do in 90 minutes. That is literally how the game works.
That is my unbiased opinion, I dont see what else it would be since i dont know you from adam.
TL;DR: There are things that actually need improving in the ME, and there are things that the user has to work on themselves.
This falls firmly into the latter.