I actually think defenders should be allowed to nudge someone off balance like that

The problem we have is that the award of a penalty almost always results in a goal (a disproportionate consequence in the vast majority of cases), which makes the temptation to go down too great and thus impossible to really tell if the attacker was brought down or chose to go down.
So I think penalties should only be awarded if the defender blatantly cleans the attacker out (i.e. there is not any reasonable room for debate). Then there is no temptation to go down at the slightest touch. If a defender can successfully nudge someone off balance etc. with pretty minimal contact (like the Sterling incident yesterday) then they should be allowed to do so as 'good defending'. Far less games basically decided by borderline incidents.

Posted By: mr carra, Jul 8, 10:20:50