Player Mentality?

Let us say your team mentality is attacking, and that goes for every player in your team including the two centre backs. How does that make sense though, if you have backward arrows assigned to them hence not going forward, but still having an attacking mentality?! Seems very contradictory because if they aren't getting forward and making forward runs, how can that work with an attack minded style?!

With rarely forward run, a player with attacking mentality can still make attacking play to expose the opposition, eg. long shots, attempt a pass to expose the opponent's defence. A defensive mentality player even with often forward run will be more likely to make play that is more conservative and try to keep the ball.

That's what I'm thinking. In other words, an attacking mentality would make them want to get the ball more forward as opposed to keeping possession and not always thinking about getting it up the field or something.