Ι have to agree and disagree at the same time with op. I have played this game long enough to admit that game mechanics can punish you if you dont watch game, or vise versa.
I had bad seasons with poor performances watching all games and once in a while I missed games on purpose, well guess what ? I always won those games I wasnt present. I even start to watch my games through my friends account just to get a safe conclusion about it, but still I couldnt.
Sometimes watching your games is the right thing to do, other times you have to go the opposite way.