Against the tougher teams, the team is buying into the more impactful tactics that allows us to be solid defensively and effective in attack. We have the players with the work ethic to do this and it is working.
Against the other teams, there is a less tactical approach because the games are more about individual expression and ability in order to break teams down / create chances etc. However the players are just not at a level that means they can beat players and create chances. Both in terms of style and in terms of ability. Its where we should be playing Mata instead of Lingard and its where we miss Pogba. Its where we will most benefit by bringing in the types of players like Maddison / Sancho and Haaland / Mandzukic.
Its like we have the players of a 4th-8th place team and the tactics in the bigger games are moving us to the top end of that scale.