Pressing

This is an extract from the Hattrick rules, Chapter 11

Pressing means that all of your players try to put pressure on their opponents. They also put slightly more effort into breaking up your opponent's attacks than trying to create their own. The result is that the total number of potential chances in the game gets reduced for both teams. The disadvantage of this tactic is that it will drain the stamina of your players faster than normal. Two things can greatly increase your chances of successfully reducing the number of attacks in the game: the total defending skill and the total stamina of all your outfield players. If a player has the "Powerful" specialty, his defence skill counts as double for this calculation. Stamina is taken into account for each player when calculating the "pressing skill", so the more tired your players get, the less able they are to put pressure on their opponents. As always, a player with excellent stamina, or better, has sufficient stamina not to lose any of his skills during the game, at least not out of tiredness. When calculating this "Pressing" skill, the experience bonus is added for each outfield player, as normal. Whenever a potential chance is foiled by a team using the Pressing tactic, it is reported in the match report. You will never find out which team could have benefited from the chance. It is perfectly possible for both teams to play Pressing. The effect on reducing the number of potential chances is cumulative and on average, the number of lost opportunities is doubled.

Things to be considered

• Pressing will affect your chances for goal too so it's better to count on SE when playing this
• Your defenders need stamina. Some claim that is enough to have inadequate stamina for defenders but your experience will be the last judge on this.
• Many teams play pressing in a desperate strike to avoid losing games but they lack appropriate players (i.e. powerful, high skilled defenders, with enough stamina). As any other tactic, pressing is best when is long term prepared.