Are tactics anti fragile?

So getting back into FM after 20 years out I am having fun but struggling.

A) it seems hard to know when the tweaks one is making are having a positive effect.

I thought I would try 3 strikers as I had read how good it was and... we still lose. So I then tried to recreate their tactics more closely and... we still lose.

Is it that you need exactly the right sort of players or that a small change in the tactic would result in a big difference in result? The way I read it, as long as I had wingbacks, 3 forwards and some sensible logic behind getting the ball forwards I would crush teams. I have found this not to be the case at all, and changing things around isn’t helping me hone in on the problem. When I try to analyse it looks like my 3 strikers are hopelessly isolated, my two midfielders are outnumbered, my wingbacks get stuck in no man’s land and the opposition exploits the space behind them to kill me off.

so I guess I am curious about my short term problem of why it isn’t working and my longer term problem of how to build tactics?

thanks for any help anyone can give. I’m playing low league stuff but again the way I read it, 3 strikers should be more robust than I am finding.

Sorry I should have connected the dots. My concern is that, if I were playing in isolation, my conclusion would be to head towards a 4-5-1 or some similar system which prioritises the midfield. But reading online suggests that would be a mistake. How do I better interpret the information?

Honestly? Build a tactic around the players you have available would be my advice.

Sure, the 3-strikers thing seems to work for many, but I never got it to work either. If you haven't got the players to make it work, it won't.

Whatever you do, if your 11 players are better than the opponent's, then you are more likely to win - but nothing is a guarantee.

If your wing-backs are being exploited - use FullBacks instead.
If your midfield is losing out big-time, strengthen there.

Apply football logic to your tactic rather than on-line boasts about storming up from Vanarama to CL glory - TBH I often suspect many of these stories have a bit of behind-the-scenes editing happening anyway, although not impossible to achieve .

I agree with Snorks.

You're better off trying to play according to your team's strengths rather than force your players to perform in ways they're not comfortable with.

In my personal match engine tests (with FM18), structured/flexible worked better for me. Also the less instructions I'd give, the better they'd play.

Just don't overthink your approach. And certainly avoid those 3-striker formations, unless your squad can back this up without conceding like mad.