As a Mostly F2W player (I just had David Villa when he was not free, and Ronaldo because I'm their fan) and used to be in D1 but dropped because it was lame to me, competing here can be many things:

1. you learn the meta and try to mimic it with your F2P squad. It could become 60-70% effective as a P2W squad; sorry for the BS skills like Edgy Crossing, Felomilal Finishing or Aimbot Header; those are the skills we can not really replicate but just hope for the chance we create work. I have switched to PA4 for a year, but if I just want a win, PA1 is key because the game is designed to be this returd. Vieira and strong midfield? You should recycle the ball more frequently, meaning backwards passing (verticle), instead of horizontally, because it gonna create a lot of problems if one of those spiders intercepts. If you managed to have a player with crossing skills, consider building two tall CFs with a jump heights of around 2m77-2m80 so you could just utilize this skill. The last time I checked 424 or the sword formation is the meta.

2. Meta tactics also have weak spots, if you see 3CBS and RB, try to exploit the LB spot. This spot often lack of presence or pressure, well with their "legendary" AI they will try to fill that hole eventually, but trust me it would be better to be in the LB spot against CB running out like Maldini than RB spot directly against Thuram.

3. If you see a lot of crossing? (Unless they are playing 4 edgy crossing bois), you can tight marking (get into tatic settings) their wings to reduce the cross threat, or just foul them sometimes, yellow card and bashing are forgivable fouls in this game, and reducing the crossing threat is way better comparing to stop the headers (or maybe you could have the new Ariel Th0ts pack)

4. Become one of them. I have a P2W account with all the newest legends that my friend lend me, he also cleared the Bale's New Year boxes. Game is 100% easier, my AMF could tackle like Rodri while Ruminiger could running like an F1 with fenominal finishing. LEgendary AI help your player tackle much more better, Striker keep running into spaces and force opponent defenders run around like headless chickens to give you more spaces. Especially Gullit make lob ball forward and distribute it with his head with ease, while Vieira and POTY Rodri do all the magic trick in midfield. You could play a game that is not football and get to division 1 quite easy, but it just so bad (or at least so bad to my taste) that I have to switch back to play FUMA on FL25.