I'm almost at 35 stars in FC Champ and I can tell you that every single opponent I face abuses autoplay when defending. I have autoplay turned off for other reasons, but even while relying on the flawed manual defending, I could win the ball, close passing lanes, close shooting lanes. But because I'm a human being, I commit many mistakes.
Autoplay on the other hand does everything consistently and makes my attacking attempts a living hell. Every h2h match feels like an uphill battle where I'm substantially disadvantaged.