It would be an idiotic move because you’d end up with 5 a side games in most games. Think about how ubiquitous tactical fouling is at every level in the league, from top to bottom. Every push, barge, shirt pull, block is by definition a tactical foul designed to play the man rather than the ball.
There are a hundred instances of it in every game. Just because the aggressive high pressing teams at the top of the table are using it to stop counters doesn’t mean that the scrapping teams at the bottom aren’t also using it to gain defensive advantage in the box at corners, by the byline, etc etc. All this ‘shoulder to shoulder, not a foul’ business that every commentator since time immemorial has been spouting is all tactical fouling.
I don’t necessarily think it would alter the approach of city and Liverpool that much. Yes Rodri and endo and mcallister would be less inclined to foul countering runners on the halfway line. But by the same token Salah, Diaz, doku, foden would be getting 5 opposition players sent off a game looking at how much defensive tactical fouling they have to put up with. Salah alone gets dragged to the floor at least 15 times a game.
