Carlisle United boss Chris Beech says he is set for talks with director of football David Holdsworth as the Blues step up squad plans for next season.

While the contract situations of certain players are resolved, others are yet to be determined at Brunton Park.

Beech has said he wants to keep the bulk of his squad together so that United can make further progress.

The United boss said another overhaul is not needed and this appears to go in tandem with the Blues’ triggering options in contract to retain players such as Callum Guy, Joe Riley, Jack Armer, Aaron Hayden and Lewis Alessandra.

Beech said he will discuss further matters with Holdsworth soon.

“I’m getting to the point where I need to sit and have a coffee with David so he understands what I want next season,” said Beech, whose side end their season with a home game against Walsall on Saturday.

“I want to try and keep everyone together, I really do.

“I don’t think there’s too much rebuilding needed, it’s more a need for consistent behaviour.

“David and the club have been diligent in their negotiations to look after the finances of the club, because we’re working in a time where businesses are struggling for income themselves.

“It’s so difficult for football at this level but we did our best last summer and we’ll do the same again.”

While Guy, Riley, Armer, Hayden, Alessandra, Taylor Charters and Josh Dixon have extended their deals, the future of other players is yet to be resolved.

First-team men such as Paul Farman, Nick Anderton, Omari Patrick, Offrande Zanzala, Gime Toure and Dean Furman all see their deals up soon.

Beech repeated that he believes United under his tenure are better suited to gradual progress rather than dramatic squad change.

He said: “My difference is spending time with players to make them better, not to keep changing, changing, changing and hoping that, ‘heads or tails’, it eventually works out.

“That’s not one of my skillsets. I’m more for looking at things and trying to make them better, so I don’t really want too much change.”

Beech says the way his side bounced back to win 3-2 after twice going behind at Leyton Orient is a trait he wants to retain next season.

Although 10th-placed Carlisle fell from the promotion race in a difficult second half of 2020/21, the head coach believes his side have faced adversity with the right attitude.

The boss added: “I wanted character in the team that can respond to setbacks, as they showed [on Saturday], and that’s what I want to hold onto next season.

“I want to encourage fast passing and touch, good movement, players taking players on, the kind of things we saw in abundance pre-Christmas.

“If we can be consistent and if we can deal with things that get thrown at us, then we’ll be able to progress again, which is what we all want.

“There’s no point going over old ground but I’m pleased with how the players responded to what happened after Christmas [a Covid outbreak and a host of postponements].

“We’ve lost one in 10, that’s also pleasing, but we want to turn more of those draws in to wins by being good at what we do.”

Beech said United were “put in the worst position of the 72” EFL clubs because of their mid-season misfortune.

He said of the toll that took on fitness levels: “All my players were 1,000m down coming out of that – that’s 10k less [as a team] than what we were before Christmas.

“So we’ve done great – because we couldn’t train hard to recover, we had to play to recover and then crack on to try and aim for something.

“I’m really proud of those efforts, and we’ve recovered really well to lose one game in 10 from where we were.”