well you cant really defend against th above you untill you get to th9,th9 can only defend against th10 at lower(gold leagues) and middle leagues(crystal) not higher up(master/champ).i suggest keeping your de low as most th9 are de hunters.2
the recent jump spell has made it easier to loot th8 so my advice is to trade off you gold for your de,trying to protect both as a th8 is asking for trouble
3 lower your trophies
4 your cc must have splash
5 hope for a th sniper to find you
6 dont even think about rushing,th10 will destroy you (350k of both resouces).
7 just hang in there