Lowering team qualty doesn't make any sence at higher levels (thesis)

[Gert Funck]

For several (about 10) seasons, i have tried lowering team Quality at the end of season. For Cup and CL it has not put me anywhere near titles. Now level 37

With this in mind, I have filled my squad (1 tokens) 5 star players, and are gonna keep them and train them and see:


does it make any change in my draws? (primarily Cup and CL) and my chances of winning titles

So lets see what happens, forward I will optimize and keep making the total squad (all 22) as strong as possible

[meis]

I get some 3-star players every now and then

It helps you to get into a "weak" league in the next new season. The selection of team is based on the average quality of those teams.

[Gert Funck]

I get some 3-star players every now and then

It helps you to get into a "weak" league in the next new season. The selection of team is based on the average quality of your team.

Please read the post before answering

[Teda]

Very good! This is something I can comment.

Remember I mentioned a while ago that I tried to lower the quality of my team at the end of a season and then I won the cup next one? Since then I have not done that so far because to rebuild really takes resources. (I know someone has diff opinions, sorry my story is big different because my top 14 are always very very very good, so to make the average low I really have to sell some really good ones and rebuild)

Then I tried a different way: what if I make my top 14-16 super strong and keep them as long as I can? This was what I have done in the past 2-3 seasons. I won all the leagues, 2 CL and 1 cup. Especially in the last season I almost made treble by doing this. I lost the cup final to a team 1 level higher than me although our team qualities are similar, he managed the match better than me so I lost.

But what tells us from my cases? Think about this, when you try to lower your quality, the purpose is to meet lower level teams, right? So your team is actually a "fake" bad team because you actively want to win cup and other competitions. But at lower levels, who will have the "pleasure" to meet you? Well, those good teams with active managers! They are good not only with good qualities but also their managers are good. So if you meet them you really cannot guarantee you can win; let alone you meet the same or higher level teams.

On the other hand, some teams that are actually with inactive managers so they are "real" bad teams; they are bad not because their manager made them bad but due to the fact that their managers are bad or even not active at all. So if you are strong and very possible you will meet this type higher level teams, if so is it a good thing? Of course yes! This was what exactly happened to me in the past couple of seasons, when I could reach to cup finals.

So instead of making the team bad, I made them strong, especially I spent packs to upgrade them at the beginning of the season. I told myself this: well, if you meet strong higher level teams in cup, you loose but actually you have nothing to loose; but if you face to lower level teams with really good managers, and you loose, you would feel sad and guilty.

In summary, I am playing this game in a stupid way. I know it and I am still doing it because I feel that this is fun. I certainly can easily make my team bad and spend some tokens to rebuild, but this is not the story we are talking about here.

At last but not the least, everything is possible; by doing this you can still meet strong teams at the same or higher level, if so then just take it easy. Like I said above, just do it because you have nothing to loose.

Good luck and you have my best wishes!

[HoofDaddy]

Good players can be 3 star and flops can be 6star, i just keep fast trainers at all qualities and useful multipositional players. I am curious to know your result of this experiment in 3 months time.

[Amane Ito]

I'm at top 16 at the cup and my level is at least 2 higher than the other 15 teams. My average quality is still similar to theirs.

[FVS0777]

For several (about 10) seasons, i have tried lowering team Quality at the end of season. For Cup and CL it has not put me anywhere near titles. Now level 37

With this in mind, I have filled my squad (1 tokens) 5 star players, and are gonna keep them and train them and see:


does it make any change in my draws? (primarily Cup and CL) and my chances of winning titles

So lets see what happens, forward I will optimize and keep making the total squad (all 22) as strong as possible

Last season I didn't do that and nearly won the treble with playing against strong opponents missed out on the league in the last game, this season I did lower my quality keeping 14 players with 3 players 1 2 * and I don't that much difference yet what I see is teams 1 level above mine with good quality so still tough as a high levels, so in the end of the season only I will see if works.

[lastman]

[...] lowering [...] Quality [...]

Sorry Gert, for ripping this out of context, but for me, the clue is in the words lowering quality.

It just sounds wrong, and no matter which way I look at it, I can't make a 'right' of it. I think it's a pretty lame scheme to fill your trophy cabinet with worthless trophys 'won' against inferior opposition.

Of course, if you're doing well the game kinda assumes you're a token buyer, so it puts you in with tougher opposition (other token buyers). So, once you start winning something, it'll become harder every time, but we all knew that already which is why this scheme exists.

I look at it as a challenge: Can I as a non-spender (or for example Leicester, West Ham, Wolfsburg, Ingolstadt) mix with the cash splashers (e.g. Chelsea, Man City, Bayern)?

To me, it's a matter of hono(u)r/integrity (I can literally hear the brain switches clicking to the 'off' position at this point).

Instead of lowering quality, I actually increase the quality of my squad. I know it sounds screwy, but bear with me, it makes sense in the end:

During any season, my squad is a 5* squad on average, fed by the best the transfer market has to offer for 1-3 tokens a pop, i.e. players who will maintain that 5* status for at least 1 more season. They're all 22+ years old (some considerably older, up to 32).

Come the end of the season, I lay off those who won't make it 5* next season (thus inevitably increasing the team average quality).

During all of this, I keep my youths (18-20 years of age) 4*, and they mostly get substitute appearances - I don't believe in fielding 'baby' teams: they get injured too often and their performances are usually not consistent. Instead, I hold their skill points back until they're 21 at which point I make them 5* and play them more often/regularly.

Now the tricky bit: despite selling the weakest links, on day 1 of the following season I'll have a 4* average team, and I only buy new players up to the point of being just under 5* average. Once the league has been drawn (day 3/28), I fill the squad to my needs, and hey presto - it's a 5* team again.

It seems to make a difference though whether you've finished 1st or 4th in the league. When I finish 1st, the following season's league will be tougher than when I finish 4th, for example.

Of course, that way I'm taking a chance in the 1st round of the cup, but although it always contains teams from at least 2 lvls above, they're never more then 1 or 2 quality points ahead, and I view that as a positive, and if I get kicked out early rounds - tough noogies, and try to do better next time.

So far, I got away with it without tanking. Ok, I haven't won a triple yet (17th season), but collected 11 1st, 7 2nd and 9 3rd-5th dishes. Considering that I've never spent any cash...

I think this winning titles thing is way overrated, anyway. I mean after all, football is just a game; taken far too seriously by most involved parties.
I much rather see football the way Arsenal (and many others) play it often (attractive, pacey, exciting) without winning trophies than the 1-0 hackings Chelsea delivered in their first title-winning season under Mou.

But of course, that's just me...

[Arion]

If someone is very desparate for the Cup, they'll have to work hard. But the best you can do is build a 22-man 5* squad in first season. Farm tokens the previous season. In the 3rd season they'll be 3* then you can go for the Cup. The contracts will end, and you'll have around 100T. So build your squad on season 4. And repeat the process. Haven't personally tried though, but seems effective on paper.

[Hoch die Tassen]

In my opinion lowering team quality ( considering its working ! ) is cheating. If you want to cheat why are you playing this game ?
The system allows you to buy token for buying good players to win cups, so why should it allow you to cheat on this if possible ?
Nordeus wants to make profit with this game which is business wise the only option, so why should they have options for players available to win all cups without spending money, just lowering the team quality ? If people feel so proud of winning all cups with lowering their quality then I think its the wrong game for them.
I like to win but I don't mind losing if someone is better in managing their team and their strategy. Its called competition. I prefer to have shaking hands during the game coz of excitement and a higher blood pressure if losing and later need to think about how make it better or different next game to get it done properly.
I would love to have a league with only strong teams and only active players coz this is why I came here to play, for competition and fun.
I want to compete with the best if possible and see how they do it and how I can improve my team and managing.
As I said, that's only my point of view but I think that is in humans nature, otherwise why do we have Olympics and world champion chips for all kind of sports. Some are always trying to cheat the system but luckily they always find their Master sooner or later.