Paul Simpson says Carlisle United’s final days of pre-season training will be more analytical than physical.

The Blues are in the last days of preparation for the big League Two kick-off at Gillingham.

And the manager says the “intensity” of training will be reduced in order to ensure players are fresh for the opener in Kent.

Instead there will be an extra accent on the technical side of United’s preparations as they look to start 2024/25 on a positive note.

“Last week was a little bit of a dialling down on the intensity, and [this] week is as well, because it's really important that the players' minds and bodies are fresh going into the Gillingham game,” Simpson told the News & Star.

“We've still got the training days this week, and afternoon sessions to make sure that we're getting all of the information into them, but it'll be more thinking and chatting than running around and getting physicality into them.

“Over the week now, the plan is to fine-tune all of the different bits of work – the unit work, the set play work, the transition stuff.

“We've got plans of how we want to go about this week without over-working the players and hopefully they'll be ready come Gillingham.”

United head into their last week of training in more positive shape after their brighter display in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Stockport County.

Simpson saw plenty to encourage him but also admits there are areas still in need of improvement.

“I want us to still remain positive,” he added.

“I want us to make sure that we keep looking forward and playing forward and not playing square risky passes.

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“I think we want to just iron out how we press as a team with the slight little adjustment that we made [against Stockport].

“We've got to just keep building on what we've got so far, making sure that everyone in every different area of the pitch knows what their roles are.

“That's something that we'll be really going on this week – it might not be a lot of physical work but it's more about the technical and the tactical stuff, and basically getting them into the right areas.”