Are you playing full manual? I am convinced the AI plays more competitively when i switch from manual shooting to advanced or basic - Superstar full manual in my cup is far more passive than when i switch to advanced shooting. The AI starts to attack more put people will say its placebo which im ok withSometimes teams just play so passively... it's weird.
This is all on professional, all regular league/cup mode. Yesterday I was playing euro qualifiers with Greece and Superliga with Argentinos. Stronger teams would really push me around at times and I lost to Boca 2:0 with no chance at all. Barely scraped by against England, got a last minute equalizer (i needed a draw to finish 2nd), had really close tough games against Gimnasia LP and Slovakia, beat Gibraltar easily. All was good and fun and challenging.
Today, I am playing a CL with Young Boys. In my group I have Benfica, Arsenal, and Bayer. I played them once each and in every game I am dominating, opponents are acting like rabbits in front a snake, very timid, defensive... It's still hard to break down their defense and the difference in players' skills results in the other team being able to put together an effective move once or twice per match and finish well, so I am at four points now, but the way the games are is so unnatural. I completely dominate them. Bayer didn't even try to come to my half of the field while losing 0:1 at home. Benfica was a complete pushover. Arsenal I lost to, but very unfair result, because I was completely the boss in the game, but didn't finish well.
What is this nonsense? If there is one major issue for me in this game, it's that right there.