Paul Simpson on Carlisle United's defensive plans for new League Two season

The Blues manager is cementing a system which includes three central defenders and wing-backs ahead of the 2022/23 campaign.

Simpson adopted a central back three from his first game in charge in February.

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And, having worked consistently on the shape this pre-season, he believes it is the best way for the Blues to head into the new campaign.

“The defensive shape is what we’ve tried to do from coming in at the end of last season,” he said.

“We were talking amongst staff in a meeting and I said, ‘This is where I want to go with it, but please tell me if you think we should change it. I need to know that’.

Jon Mellish, centre, is one of Simpson's key defensive options (photo: Ben Holmes)

“We all basically agreed that for now it’s the right shape for us.

“It may be somewhere further down the line that we have to look at it and think we might be better with a back four – we might be losing out in other areas of the pitch, because we’ve got a five, and it’s something we’ll just address and might have to just adapt a little bit as we go along.

“But I have it set my mind at the moment that it’s a back three with two wing-backs, and a front five in front of that can be fairly fluid and can be adapted depending on what the opposition are going to do.”

Simpson’s last chance to fine-tune his team in a match situation comes on Saturday when the Blues head to Morecambe for their final pre-season friendly.

One of the candidates for a centre-half place, Morgan Feeney, could return in that game after sitting out Tuesday’s defeat at Livingston following the head injury he suffered against Bolton last weekend.

Other contenders for central defensive slots are Ben Barclay, Jon Mellish and Corey Whelan.

One of the aspects that pleased Simpson most against Bolton last Saturday, along with United’s impressive fitness levels, was the way his players stuck to the tactical “structure” he is attempting to put in place.

“They’re obviously listening, which is pleasing, as a coach, manager, whatever anybody wants to call me,” Simpson said.

“It’s pleasing that they’re listening and able to go and apply it and execute it in a game.

“We’ll need to. We still need to be better, there were things that weren’t quite right [against Bolton].

“We gave the ball away a little bit too cheaply at times, we had times where our outside centre-backs were getting out and weren’t quite finding the right pass.

“Those are things we need to improve on. We had opportunities where we could have been a little bit more organised on set plays. We didn’t do it particularly well.

“There are still things we need to improve and work on. But I’ve got to say, overall I was really pleased with what I saw.”