Long Ball and Pressure Together

There is a lot of confusion over whether long balls and pressure can be played together so lets clear up a bit of the confusion:

Long balls

Long ball is something you do when are in possession of the ball. Long passes direct from defence or mid to the forwards, somewhat bypassing the passing game and making your midfield strength less relevant - when attacking.

As ever your midfield is your first line of defence and playing long balls won't really help in this regard.

A caveat to longballs is it is a tactic that doesn't seem to work well since stamina changes were introduced around 2011.

Pressure

Pressure is something you do when the other team has the ball. Closing the opposing players down, forcing mistakes and trying to gain possession in midfield. It's more work (& therefore more tiring) than not playing pressure. It effectively boosts your midfield strength.

Longballs and pressure together?

Longballs is something you do while in possession of the ball and pressure is something you do when the opposition has the ball. Indeed pressure is probably more important when you have a weaker midfield.

There is no reason not to use them together other than maybe fatigue. Longballs causes you to give the ball away more, and you tire when you don't have the ball. Pressure makes you more tired too.