This, from what i've seen your team can counter attack regardless of whether you have it ticked (based off of your mentality) when your opponent makes a mistake and has alot of his team pressing forward. But forcing a counter attack means you try to create the opportunity yourself ie your defense might rush up on the opponents attack to disposses them and then launch the counter (however if they fail to disposses them and get outplayed then the attack=1 on 1 with goalkeeper. The defense might also play the ball from their own box to the midfield while the midfield/attack get in position for the counter giving you a numerical advantage in the opponents defensive half if the defender successfully gets the ball away, but if they get dispossessed then your opponent will counter or a block will just end the attack. So ticking force counter attack is most effective when playing with a defensive formation and your wing backs have a high physicality rating compared to your opponents attack and are playing 4 or 5 defenders. It can of course work on any formation but if your defense is weaker than your opponents strikers/midfield then you're gonna have a bad time.
Top eleven also seem to have defenders sometimes scoring from forcing counter attacks (a lot of my dl/dr/dmcs have a few goals and a few assists in their time at my club)