Pressing

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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.
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.
Whenever a potential chance is foiled by a team using the pressing tactic, it is reported in the match report (but you will never find out which team could have benefited from the chance).

Effectiveness

In order to be really successful you should:

• have a lot of defensively strong players on the field,
• have high stamina on all players (they all contribute to the pressure).

Pressing could be a good option when you feel inferior and want to keep the score down, but, as any other tactic, works best when is long term prepared. Many teams play pressing in a desperate strike to avoid losing a game, even if they lack the appropriate players (i.e. Powerful, high skilled defenders, with enough stamina). Your defenders need stamina.
Keep in mind that supporters prefer a team that loses 2-5 to a team that loses 0-1...

Benefits and drawbacks

Two things can greatly increase your chances of successfully reducing the number of attacks in the game:

• the total defending skill,
• the total stamina of all your outfield players.

The disadvantage of this tactic is that it will drain the stamina of your players faster than normal.

Counters

Strong midfield and strong attack.

Players

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. 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. 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. Use it when your midfield has good stamina, otherwise you will lose possession in second half, granting your opponent more attacks than they would have if you played normal.

Specialty

Pressing will affect your chances for goal too so it's better to count on SE when playing this.
If a player has the "Powerful" specialty, his defence skill counts as double for this calculation.

Lineup

Line-ups with 4 or 5 defenders are the best.

Training

Any, but train defender may be a good idea.