It's all good. It isn't as hard as you think. Make some 25 year old QFC guys and play with sliders. Ground sliders are strange and I'm just relearning them, but they seem to be heavily affected by hiddens and physicals. I'm sure someone with more recent experience may be able to help. I do know that before the power/accuracy slider for ground strikes was introduced that the setting was in the middle of that and people were complaining about too many misses. As a new manager you won't really benefit from this info, but maybe some older ones will. Also, does anyone ever have success with control in the clinch? I never have and have almost zero idea how to use it correctly. When I don't go at least somewhat aggro, I lose the clinch game every time.
Edit: I'm a standup guy mostly too, but I've noticed that the game has changed since I left and people use more ground than they did before. Also, lighter fighters seem to fare better on the ground and heavier fighters seem to mostly stay on the feet as KO's are easier. Escapes seem to be less common as they were as well, and they were my go to for standup fighters and lay and pray just never seemed to be as effective.