I often wonder if Football manager is over thought, we all seem to want to play it using real life football, after seeing some of the bugs and issues with Goalkeepers etc.. i don't think you should, its a game, its not real life i think if you can get a grasp of the match engine and find a tactic that can beat it then i don't really think it needs to be over thought.
Ive played every Football manager going back to the original on the Spectrum, since it started from Championship manager to football manager and each game ive found it to be all about the tactic, in the early days it was fairly simple to find a tactic and win things, however the last couple of FM's have been harder, but on FM 2015 i found a quality tactic and that was it, i won everything from small teams to the bigger teams.
Ive tried everything from finding players only using the star system from scouts, to averaging out and focusing on the attributes for the roles, and i havent found any difference in how the game works, if the tactic doesnt get past the bugs in the match engine you will struggle, you can have the best players in the world but you won't have consistent success, get a consistent tactic and decent enough players and you win.
I rarely ever watch the game at all, i mainly only ever use the commentary, i test loads and loads of tactics when i first get the new FM and you can always tell a consistent tactic, one that has managed to bypass the bugs, once i have found the right tactic i rarely ever need to find another for that years FM. i like to try and tweak a tactic here and there for away fixtures.
What worries me about future FM games is that SI seem to be trying to make a more and more realistic game yet seem to create more and more bugs in the system, for me i think its the reason that this years FM is so hard to find any tactic that can consistently get past the bugs.
Its so frustrating that its any lack of real life football knowledge that stops the tactic from working, but a poor match engine.