Relying on youth players and the players who have now for the next season

[The-red]

I wonder if it is still possible to play the game and remain competitive with the same players you have this season and once you move up to a harder level...Also many say that youth players are best to be sold as they are revenue generators but if kept and assuming you have a full roster, can you still be competitive the following season? Let's assume you have one of the best teams in your league right now but as you know stars drops once you move to higher levels.

Basically can one remain competitive without spending any tokens in this game?

[Der_Ryan_M]

I think yes but to an extend. If you never buy players (nor train yours a lot) and just always promote youth players, you will eventually have a very low % squad and therefor also get drawn with easy and inactive opponents.
If you then are an active player you will win vs these teams. I don't think you can win many (if any) titles with this kind of strategy but Top 8 placement in league should be possible to achieve every season to promote again. Would be a fun experiment.

[julien12]

I wonder if it is still possible to play the game and remain competitive with the same players you have this season and once you move up to a harder level...Also many say that youth players are best to be sold as they are revenue generators but if kept and assuming you have a full roster, can you still be competitive the following season? Let's assume you have one of the best teams in your league right now but as you know stars drops once you move to higher levels.

Basically can one remain competitive without spending any tokens in this game?

My opinion (based on several seasons of trying to run a near zero token, second team): it is possible but requires luck to get a good draw and discipline to never let your team get too strong. In order to use YA players as next seasons starters, without additional spend, your team can never get much stronger than 80%. Most YA players are in the high 50s to low 60s in quality. For a modest spend you can get that into the 70s and 80s but the question here is what is possible without spend. So if your league/CL/Cup group only ranges up to the 80s or 90s then you can be competitive with a team in the 80s - that will next season start in the 60s. As long as all of your players are <22yo they will gain pretty efficiently from just trainings and frequent games. Regular game play is most important which means you cannot have many functional backups. In this scenario your team will start in the low 60s and end in the low 80s and as long as the teams you are grouped with are in the same range then it comes down to formation and tactics. It takes a bit of discipline to not buy a player - even a cheap auction player - that will vault you up in quality but then ruin your draw the next season (unless you sell at end of season).
I find it easier to run a low-cost team (versus a no-cost team). With a few tokens I can make second and third week auction purchases at a very low cost for really decent players (80s to 90s in quality). As they are usually older they don’t train as well but I plan to sell them on the last day of the season anyway so I don’t need to them to ‘grow’. Also, getting on a good association team has been an epiphany. Getting 50T for Gold1 (or 100T for Platinum - hopefully next season) is huge. So here I am spending tokens that I don’t have to pay cash for. As for cash, I find the monthly card to be a very good value. I’ve tried seasons with it and without it and find I end up with a lot more options - and have more fun - with the additional daily tokens. Between the 94T per season of the monthly card, the 50T for being in a Gold1 association and daily farming for greens (estimating 12+ greens per day in the bank plus one additional video per player to improve their condition between games) I find I can train my players regularly and keep my whole team in the 80s to 90s range (by end of season) three out of every four seasons. That does not guarantee me winning the league, CL or Cup but it does keep me very competitive most seasons.

[The-red]

My opinion (based on several seasons of trying to run a near zero token, second team): it is possible but requires luck to get a good draw and discipline to never let your team get too strong. In order to use YA players as next seasons starters, without additional spend, your team can never get much stronger than 80%. Most YA players are in the high 50s to low 60s in quality. For a modest spend you can get that into the 70s and 80s but the question here is what is possible without spend. So if your league/CL/Cup group only ranges up to the 80s or 90s then you can be competitive with a team in the 80s - that will next season start in the 60s. As long as all of your players are <22yo they will gain pretty efficiently from just trainings and frequent games. Regular game play is most important which means you cannot have many functional backups. In this scenario your team will start in the low 60s and end in the low 80s and as long as the teams you are grouped with are in the same range then it comes down to formation and tactics. It takes a bit of discipline to not buy a player - even a cheap auction player - that will vault you up in quality but then ruin your draw the next season (unless you sell at end of season).
I find it easier to run a low-cost team (versus a no-cost team). With a few tokens I can make second and third week auction purchases at a very low cost for really decent players (80s to 90s in quality). As they are usually older they don’t train as well but I plan to sell them on the last day of the season anyway so I don’t need to them to ‘grow’. Also, getting on a good association team has been an epiphany. Getting 50T for Gold1 (or 100T for Platinum - hopefully next season) is huge. So here I am spending tokens that I don’t have to pay cash for. As for cash, I find the monthly card to be a very good value. I’ve tried seasons with it and without it and find I end up with a lot more options - and have more fun - with the additional daily tokens. Between the 94T per season of the monthly card, the 50T for being in a Gold1 association and daily farming for greens (estimating 12+ greens per day in the bank plus one additional video per player to improve their condition between games) I find I can train my players regularly and keep my whole team in the 80s to 90s range (by end of season) three out of every four seasons. That does not guarantee me winning the league, CL or Cup but it does keep me very competitive most seasons.

This was very helpful. I will come back and read this again and again as there is a lot of useful info in there for a rookie. Thanks a million.