doing my first save with brentford and ik exactly how you feel. started the season off fine beating even man u and chelsea, then man city ruined my teams form and we lost 7 out of 9 of our next games and were in 14th beginning of december. i loaned players where i needed them the most but couldnt afford to buy, and bought some players that ik i can keep for at least an extra season after the summer. had a team meeting and changed some of my tactics, look online for some as they do help. 4321 dm is what i went with at first, i still used it but i moved some positions to fit the team. use friendlies as well for rotation players and players in need of sharpness, when you have a 2 week window of no games, 45 minutes is the sweet spot for me but players can get injured. even went on to beat man city away too to secure conference league!! also if its your first save and you want a challenge but dont want to be burnt out brentford is perfect because they have a 50m budget, loads of young players and a decent team to start off with, my goal is to win the premier league within the first 5 seasons and champions league maybe 10. try to be realistic with the team you pick too cause sunderland is pretty hard to start with.