To be honest I'm really not seeing a lot of the stuff you mention, maybe I'm just not an observant gamer, I win most corners that the AI takes by quickly selecting a defender and putting him in a good position, I wouldn't say that their run to the corner then cross is a cheat, I think it's just limited AI design resulting in them being too successful at something which makes it frustrating, I've built up a new formation to specifically focus on cutting down crosses into the box and it seems to be working so far, yes I've already conceded some cheap far post goals this season but I'm still in 3rd place so far and have won more than I've lost (I think my record so far is something like 4 wins, 2 draws, 2 defeats) that's on professional with a Sheffield Wednesday squad only improved by growth and a few free transfers who cover during fatigue, considering the first season on pro in the premiership I got relegated and wasn't even out of the bottom three until about halfway in I'm not doing bad
I often have slightly more shots than my opponent but not always, same as posession, some matches I have more, some matches they have more, certain teams are hard to breakdown, today I played Newcastle away and won 2-0 and I completely dominated them, they didn't close me down much so I just passed the ball around and completely humiliated them (I didn't realise at the time they were in 1st place and unbeaten), despite the scoreline I gave them such a footballing lesson that Martin Tyler said "there's some chants of you're not fit to wear the shirt, is that the worst insult a player can hear?" to which Andy Gray replied something like "yes it is, blah blah, but they're playing very badly".
Next match I played Bolton at home and they closed me down continually, harried me all the time just like Bolton of old, Diouff especially on the wing was causing me immense problems, not just having to defend against him but he was dropping back to help out his defender and my wingers didn't have the legs on him, I ended up only drawing 1-1 and they had more shots than me and more possession than me.
Because I'm playing as Sheffield Wednesday using their original team (I refuse to buy in anything other than cheap young prospects to keep it real) who have players that are all inferior to the rest of the premiership I'm not really seeing the stat thing "they play stronger, faster than their real stats" because at the end of the day they're all better than my players anyway
The biggest annoyances are definitely:
1. Insanely biased refereeing towards the AI (consolation is he's very card wary so you can get away with a lot of things) and in fact use it to your advantage, giving away a freekick outside of shooting range is much, much, much easier to defend than their run to wing, far post cross, so if you're worried about them crossing you can hack them down......
2. Their constant tactic of run to the wing, far post cross, that's mostly annoying because my keeper refuses to punch and often refuses to move and lets the ball over his head for them to get an easy tap in, haven't found a real fix to that other than trying everything to not let them cross, my new formation is built up specifically to stop their players getting wide and putting crosses in, basically it's 1 forward, then LAM, RAM who are my first line of defense to stop the crosser, they close in on him whilst to cut off the angle whilst I bring in a second defender to further narrow his dribble options, then if they fail I have a LDM and RCM who can cover either side, if they fail I have LWB and RWB who also help to cover, with them being wingbacks and much further forward than normal full backs I have a chance to put pressure on the dribbler earlier, and if I do need to foul them then they're usually outside of freekick shooting range.
3. Final annoyances is even worse when combined with a referee that gives them fouls for simply walking into them and that's their overly accurate free kicks, completely unrealistic, even the best freekick takers only get one goal in around 5 freekicks I think? In Fifa08 it's gotta be something like 80%+ scoring ratio from freekicks, no matter who the kick taker is, only thing to do is as soon as you've conceded the free kick and everyone is lined up, quickly select a defender and put him on the same post the goalkeeper is covering, I've probably saved at least 15 goals with my defender in 3 seasons so far, still conceded more than that but not by much.