I had a really good run a few days ago and my rank went from mid 1300s to over >1450. I was destroying lower-rated opponents and was handling lobbed balls/double marking spammer with ease. I was playing really well against 1500-1600 rated players and I felt like I could stand toe to toe against them. I did notice lags here and there, but it felt manageable and I was still able to make plays as long as I compensated for lags a little bit.

I continued to do well with the matchday earlier yesterday with 3 wins and 1 tie, then everything just fell apart once I started playing preset matchdays. For whatever reason, the lags became a lot more noticeable to the point where I no longer felt like I had any meaningful control over the game. I was conceding a lot of goals, and most of the goals were basically my defenders dispossessing the ball and just standing there doing nothing while my opponent forwards dispossesses the ball again for easy goals. I've also noticed my players taking an extra touch before they make a pass even though I clearly played the pass early and I intended it to be a one-touch pass.

I normally don't struggle against low-rated opponents, and I find it easy to play against people who spam long balls and double marking because they are so predictable, but long balls become almost impossible to defend with all the lag that is happening. I can see an opening that the opponent made from double marking, but I can't make the play because it takes so damn long for my pass to register. Again, if the lag isn't too bad, I can compensate for the lag by making my play early, but there is so much you can do, and your plays just become really inaccurate if you play them too early.

By the time I was done with the match days, I was down to 1380's and I lost 3 matches in a row, which hasn't happened in months. There were some games where the lag was better but I felt like my timing was way off after playing so many super laggy games.

I am just curious. For people who are very skilled at the game, how do you cope with these kinds of lags? How are you able to win so consistently when matches lags to the point of slide show and you have no real control over what happens?