Yep. That's the way to go. Once had a cup final against a plus one level friend who played a friendly against me the day before the final. He beat me in the friendly and then in the final. Since then I will often, but not always put my 2 and 3 star players into the starting lineup to discourage unwanted friendlies.
And back to the original idea. Ok I can see some worth in the idea, but really, how many more bugs could the Devs give the game?