There isn't much difference in the teams yet since we all just started. You may have one or two better players, but that will rarely guarantee a victory.
There may also be teams you just play badly against, if you have a lot of tactics, you may do bad against a team with extremely little tactics but much more other skills. You'll always go first but you'll usually fail. On the other hand, if all skills are more or less equal, a little extra tactics may make huge differences.
Another thing to consider is that many teams still use several young players in their main squad. Those players can be very good, but they aren't always. Using young players greatly increases the randomness of the outcomes of your team. Right now the old players just aren't very good, so using young ones is often the better choice but you can't win all your matches with them.
Lastly, total wage isn't a very good indication, older players get more wage, so if you have a higher wage it might as well mean your team is older. Later on in the game, players who stay in your club longer can also have a lower wage (because of the maximum yearly raise) than similar players who have just been transfered.