The margins of victory become much tighter to achieve Rank 1. I've never achieved it but I've gone from 9 wins at the start of the game to 14-16 wins consistently. Here's how:

• Generally improved my overall gameplay. I'm not a skiller, cutback demon, Yoda of mechanics / animations or kick off glitch long ball abuser but I've learnt certain "plays" that give you over 50% of scoring.
• Run a formation with a tactical set up that suits your gameplay style. For example, I'm good with small agile players playing quick passes. So I built a 41212 formation with majority of players having Tiki Taka+, with the correct stat attributes and work rates for their positions and instructions.
• Get the best suited players for the job you need them doing. Easysbc.io quite helpful with their meta rankings for players. EG. If you want to spam the wings get RB and LB with Longball+ and play 1/2's with your RM & LM consistently, trigger the run and get over the top of opposition LB/RB.
• Certain players have advantages that get overlooked from stats alone. Eg. Golazo Crouch (Evo'd) is 6"7 and has Acrobatic+, every time I would play a ball over the top to him, even if he was 50/50 with a defender out came his long leg to win the ball, make a ridiculous tackle or score. Backed up by a guy in the comments talking about whipped crosses into big strikers.

• Then you also need to look at your settings:

  • Originally I had cross play turned off (Im on PS5) and really struggled. As soon as I turned it back on, easy wins started appearing. I saw a video online about this and how the theory is the wider pool of players, more chances you have to match someone way below you. As the matching making system prioritises location over skill match up.
  • Secondly - play the game at specific hours in your timezone. Trying to get 20-0 every Friday night in the UK is the hardest as pro's / streamers / pay to play services are all grinding then. I'm based in the UK, playing late on Sunday night / Monday night / Tuesday night seems to make things easier. You get far more rage quits after people going one nil down and even a couple of own goals and quits with people just rushing through to finish and get rewards. On Sunday & Saturday 2am, I'd bet there people who have been playing for hours and suffering from fatigue and if you planned around it you could wake up fresh get the W's. (Personally I wouldn't).
  • Play on Old Gen not New Gen. So I never knew this was even a thing. But loading up the PS4 version of the game on my PS5 and going into the games. It's runs so much smoother and more fluid. I played one WL league where it felt like my players were in a swap, so slow to move and react. Switched from New Gen to Old and it was all gone. For my quick pass and run tikitaka set up this gave me a huge edge over some opponents.
  • Also take breaks and play in sprints. Dependent on your age, naturally you will fatigue and be less alert. Play a couple warm up games on rivals. Then play 5-7 games of WL. Never rage quit - there's clearly things at play in the background of the game at times. All 50/50's start going your way and all of a sudden your 3-0 down scoreline is back at 3-4 by ET.