Well, I´m not a tactics expert, just did some experimenting with and tried to make logical decisions. For example, if my next oponent plays a long pass, counter attack, wide, then I´m going to put my players lower on the field (just the midfielders, to help the defense the little more) and wider, and set my defence to lower defensive line, all out defence, conservative, middle defence. This way, my team never gets caught on counter attacks and is wide enough to block all the directions the CPU might try.
About cracking their defense, if CPU is pressing high, and agressive for example, I know their defence is probably going to leave space behind, so I play long ball and I spread my player with the distance slider. They will open wide and forward as fast as possible, wich leads to oportunities to
play it behind them.
Of course, you have to consider your team ability, and also, some CPU tactics are easier to crack than others. I usually have problems when CPU plays a possession, short pass and wide tactic. The best way is to try to press them as fast as possible, and high on the pitch causing passing errors, because if I don´t, they start passing it around my box, and cause havoc on my defenders. But my team is not that great pressing wide, and I can get exposed on my defence.
Not a perfect solution for all the matches, but it´s fun to see how diferently I have to play against each team.
Just a note on the options "Middle" and "Wide" on the defensive tactics. Middle actually means that your team will try to push the oponent to the middle, intead of focusing on defending the midfiled. Also, Wide means that your team will push the CPU to the sides, and avoid him to play through the middle. This actually makes a diference when your playing against wide vs narrow formations.
Hope I didn´t confuse you with my "special" english

.