I received my club in November 2010. I never bought any players. Now, after 11 years (36 seasons) of homegrown experience, it’s time to wrap it up and pass on some tips and tricks.
I started playing with homegrown players because I liked the idea of playing with players who have a deep connection to the club. With my previous club (2005-2010), I got tired of playing with foreign players whose names I couldn’t even remember. They didn’t come to life to me. This was different with my homegrown guys: most of them played for over 20 seasons for the club and in that time (6 years) at least I could remember their names and skills.
Some of you might have read one of my previous articles about my homegrown adventures. If not, you can read part 1 (2011) here:
(13392) and part 2 (2015) here:
(18924). Summary: between 2010 and 2016 I tried to reach first division in Spain, but only made it to II. In my best match, my team got 509 hatstats
(515850184).
New goal: 600 hatstats
In September 2016 I started with a new group of 17 year olds (I call it my “2016-team”). Now my goal was to reach 600 hatstats. I picked this goal of 600 hatstats, because I didn’t want to depend on the match engine trying to win matches and leagues. But also, I thought that having a team with this brutal force, I should be able to beat just about anybody. I mean, good luck with your carefully picked specialties, optimised in whatever tactic, if I play against you with a magical midfield and attack!
In practice, this goal of brutal force meant that I prioritised skills over specialties, and that I only trained skills that attributed to my teams ratings. So, I didn’t train set pieces training and didn’t care about passing for defenders and scoring for wingers, for example. After some playing around with Hattrick Organiser, I figured that optimising for a 253 formation would give me the best chance to reach 600 hatstats. Did I reach my goal? Keep on reading…