You can abandon your team for the rest of the season.. Play an illegal formation and save up tokens and skill points. Your players won't lose a star at the end of the season and you can rebuild the following season.

Downside is you won't get to play the Champions League... But you'll have a strong team for next season.

If you can farm tokens by completing offers then you'll have tokens for the auctions. If you are on a server where bidding is very competitive then it will be very tough.