Hi, I've played for a while, I'm currently in League of Canada 1 but I started in Canada 2 for several seasons and remember how lost I was. Some suggestions...
1) If you can afford it, you should be constructing facilities as much as possible. Players come and go, facilities stay forever with you.
2) Stadium, Training Facility, Youth academy - these should be built as quickly as possible, in that order.
3) While its a game based on soccer - its really a game based on money. So make sure you have enough money to keep building facilities and don't blow your money on free agent soccer players.
4) When developing players, its usually best to focus on primary characteristics. Keepers should be built on Tactics up to 1.5 and Blocking everything else. Similarly Forwards should be built on Tactics up to 1.5 and Scoring everything else. Defense should be built primarily on Dueling with higher Tactics eventually and Midfielders should be built primarily on Passing with higher tactics eventually.
5) When playing games, you should always set your match strategies, don't just leave it on default. Try things out and see which ones work for you.
6) Realize that most players you develop from Youth Academy should probably be sold by the time they reach adult playing age for cash so you can buy better players. The exceptions may be the Star Players.
7) Read the help manuals they are extremely useful.
8) If you have a youth with Roaming - you should probably develop them as Keepers (roaming doesn't penalize keepers). Youth with Selfish should probably be a forward. Youth with Team Player should probably be midfielders.
hope this helps. Feel free to post questions and I can try to answer as best I can.