Just making my bias clear.
Recently I've taken part in the open beta test of the upcoming cyanide game. I used that test to hone my LRB5 fouling strategy alot and unfortunately I've been pretty alarmed by the success I had. I didnt get to play many weaker teams but I did get to play alot of teams with a significantly higher TV than my own. Due to the lack of human stars, wizards, or skilled mercs in the beta I found myself pretty much forced to stack up on bribes. Thus I had two main strategies:
Playing normally:
- foul key players using dirty players and multiple assists
- from maybe turn 6 of each half go nuts fouling whatever you can if you have sufficient reserves
Fouling is weak enough that getting some cas/KO profit from it is relatively unreliable even with gangfouls. Its often worth taking a pot shot at a good player thats vulnerable but it seems very hit and miss as to whether or not this pays off. Perhaps with zombies it could be more reliable. Despite this I found myself fouling an awful lot more than I do in LRB4 because you frequently get quite alot of lucky hits in without any sendoffs.
Playing using bribes:
- foul anything as long as you have more than one assist, try to use your dirty players but its better to foul without it than to miss out
- from turn 6 to the end of each half stop fouling with your dirty player unless theres a really juicy target or you have several of them left. Instead foul away your superfulous linefodder and save any remaining bribes for the next half.
Using bribes shifts the attritional value of fouling dramatically. It takes several fairly unlucky fouls before you have to worry about losing anyone from the pitch. With just two bribes and a single dirty player you should end up getting in 12+ fouls over the course of the game without it seriously affecting your on-pitch numbers. This was generally very effective.
To be honest I found it a bit yawnworthy
The effectiveness of ordinary fouling is potentially very high but it was far too random to rely on, sometimes it was a great tool and sometimes I might as well not have bothered with the rule (I was careful not to let sendoffs lose me games). When it did work because I either had bribes or got lucky it was relatively repetitive: rinse, foul, repeat. Sadly it also tended to detract from the rest of the game because it was frequently too effective. I like fouling but I dont want it to be the logical choice every turn and I certainly dont want it to act as an effective attritional tool because that takes alot of skill out of the game 
which is ok for me but possibly not great for less foul-happy people, especially because those brainless fouls will likely be carried out with the full force of +2 to injury.
