I like to have defenders with strong positioning and tackling, with ppms to stay back at all times and play short simple passes. I use an anchorman for helping out the defence, but in a 4-4-2 i'd like to use a midfielder (defend). I also instruct players to be more disciplined.
Using wingers means that you will use full backs, so you want them to defend good and sometimes provide the wingers with good passes, but you shouldn't use them to be offensive since you want the team to have defensive stability and you already have the wingers to provide width.
Also, try to avoid losing the possesion in defensive and mid areas of the field (leaving you in a bad positioning), by making your defence and midfield pass simpler. Leave the creativity to good offensive players, so your wingers, your offensive midfielder and your trequartista/false nine (if you use one) need to be good at passing and making decisions
I'm not a real expert but using this tips has helped me a lot.