I half do, but I usually look around forums a bit at the start (read: after getting the sack on my first save) to see a bit what works and what doesn't, and making what usually is some sort of tweaked copy of a successful tactic.
I did that this year as well, but then I ended up going with the one tactic I had completely made myself and it really seems to work.
Of course, my latest game was a 6-0 loss to City, but up until then it had worked