if you play defensive midfield u must know how to exchange role with the other centre midfield. And a lot of times, defensive midfielder doesnt have attacking role, just stand around to recover cleared ball.
When your pressuring on the ball, force him to move into the direction of another team mate, then he'll be fuked. Means loosen up and allow him to move into that direction, but if he moves away, apply intense pressure so you get to play him into the zone u want him to.
as a defensive midfield, always recover your position first , then you rest in your position. If you are force to move out of your position to pressure, once they passed the ball away from you, quickly move back to your centre - defensive position to prevent opponent exploit that space u left moving out.
Defending is more experience than technical. Let me share an example, if its a 50/50 ball, u got to calculate your odds, if you go on rampage, we'll never know the outcome and theres a good chance for injury. Instead, sometimes i just pretend to move forward then quickly move backwards. That will make him think ur coming for the ball and he 'll even accelerate faster to push the ball past you, when u take the few steps back, you already left yourself some space, and the ball is moving towards you instead of moving past you, the next thing u'll need to do is just body him and play the ball away.
Learn how to place ur body in between the ball and the opponent. And DUN let him use u as a pivot, ( alot of attackers do that ).
How do i know? i play defender lol.