Firstly, you do need to change or vary your tactics as the AI will work out how to play against you. As we the humans look at opposition tactics and plan against them, so do the AI managers so if you find a decent run tailing off, look to change things a bit. I like to keep three tactics current with the team - one attacking/control, one defensive/counter, and one 'standard'. I select the starting tactic depending on opposition and whether home/away then adjust if needed during the game. Means our opponents can rarely guess what formation and tactic we are going to show up with.
Now, I am not about to 'diss' your tactic, I am just going to throw in my thoughts on the formation you posted. The 4123 is one of the most flexible formations and can work with almost any mentality/shape/instructions with the right players. I will also admit that I am a Man Utd fan, I tend to play FM as a Lower League manager so I am not familiar with the players you have and their attributes. Although like Klopp on the weekend, a formation with '2-1' in it is good for me!
As far as you team instructions go, a couple of them are working against your player roles/duties - you have wingers on attack, which encourages them to beat the full back on the outside and cross from the byline, yet your team talk tells them to deliver crosses early. If you want your FBs to cross from deep, but not the wingers, use the FB individual instructions.
With Defensive full Backs on defend, and Wingers on Attack - there is a lot of space on your flanks that can be exploited by the Opposition. If I have attacking wingers my Full Backs are on support duty which pushes them a little further upfield to cover the space behind the winger. They are then in a better position to be able to deliver early crosses as you intend.
Tighter marking and Close Down more are two instructions I rarely use together, usually one or the other. Tighter marking means your players should be closer to the opposition counterpart when not in possession - therefore how can they close down further? I think of the two as - Tighter marking we can stop the opposition player from receiving the ball when its played to him, Close Down More means I don't mind him having the ball but we will make it difficult for him to do anything with it. If you tight mark, your players will get pulled out of position as they stick to their player, close down means the closest of your players to the man with the ball is the one that applies the press and you will keep your shape better.
Your BPD player instructions could be shorter passing/less risky passes - he will then play into your DLP or CM allowing you to 'Play out of Defence'. Otherwise Defensive CBs tend to just clear the ball anywhere, which means if it goes over your midfield your front three are too spread out to make anything of the clearance. Switch him to a CD - Defend, and you might find better ball retention - coupled with 'play out of defence'. If you are under pressure and forced deep then Clear to Flanks might help get the ball wide to the wingers, but it is a bit of a Hail Mary play.
Exploiting the flanks is OK, but if you have an attacking mentality you will find your probably playing wide enough without the instruction really needed, also, how good is Firminho in the air? Without a decent header of the ball in the box, there's not much point playing wide and crossing into the area. So, maybe experiment and switch sides with the wingers, make them Inside Forwards and let your fullbacks push forward into the space left wide. When you have the ball, you'll then have a five-man midfield and be in a position to close down very quickly should you lose possession and win the ball back high up the pitch - Klopp style ;-) but still have three players attacking the penalty area, can be effective with 'Work ball Into Box' which reduces the number of crosses attempted.
To be honest - that formation is one of my favourites, it is so tweakable and pretty solid. Its a solid, structured formation with Defensive or Counter but also fluid enough with a Control or Attacking instruction. The 3 man midfield can overload the centre of the pitch and be very difficult to play through and there is room to bring your full backs into the attack/support roles behind the wingers.
So, they are just some of my thoughts on your formation and instructions, the man thing is, don;t be afraid to change things a bit - wingers to IFs or DFB to FB-A and use the space available.
Remember, after three or four games playing the same tactic, the AI will have a strategy to counter yours so change things regularly.
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