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Sport

Ebbsfleet United manager Dennis Kutrieb says he won’t rush into signing a new centre-forward despite injury to top scorer Dominic Poleon

By: Matthew Panting mpanting@thekmgroup.co.uk

Published: 05:00, 29 September 2023

Updated: 19:12, 30 September 2023

Ebbsfleet boss Dennis Kutrieb insists he won’t race into signing a striker to boost their injury-hit squad.

Leading scorer Dominic Poleon has been ruled out with a thigh problem while Rakish Bingham is a long-term absentee having not featured since March.

Nathan Odokonyero scored his first Ebbsfleet goal in the 6-1 defeat at Altrincham on Saturday. Picture: Ed Miller/EUFC

The Fleet missed some gilt-edged opportunities in their 1-0 home defeat to Dorking Wanderers in National League on Tuesday night.

But Kutrieb insisted that he won’t panic into bringing players in who won’t be able to make an impact.

“It's always possible to make signings but they need to improve us,” stated Kutrieb, when talking about bringing in a central striker. “If I would make a signing with a player who possibly needs four or five weeks to get fit, it doesn’t help me.

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“If I bring a striker in who has the same record like the strikers we have who are not scoring at this moment in time, it doesn’t help me.

“If it’s a striker who is sitting on the bench for the last 18 months, it wouldn’t help us.

“Just really good options would help us now and they are simply not available at this moment in time. Or they are just too expensive, as simple as that.

“We wouldn’t go crazy now, we have our budget, it is what it is and I am totally happy and fine with it. There’s nothing where I would say ‘oh yeah we need to do something’ and I throw the strikers under the bus.

“We have still scored enough goals by the way. Yes, we haven’t scored against Dorking but that is the second time we haven’t scored in 12 games. All the other games we have scored.

“I don’t want to put too much attention on the strikers, we still need to make sure we don’t concede goals. When we have clean sheets, we will be fine.

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“Dominic Poleon was on the pitch against Chesterfield and we still didn’t score a goal so that’s too easy for me. We need to make sure that we defend as a team and that was much better on Tuesday. If this is fine, then we will be successful.”

While Poleon has seven goals to his name already this term, summer signing Nathan Odokonyero scored for the first time in the 6-1 thrashing at Altrincham last Saturday and Shaq Coulthirst is yet to get off the mark.

Kutrieb still believes there is enough quality within the Fleet’s ranks to deliver when their top players are not available.

“It's confidence, 100%,” said Kutrieb. “I see the boys in training and I see how they score goals. You can speak about every single player but obviously there are differences in quality. We don’t need to talk about that.

“It’s not by accident that we had Poleon the top scorer last season with 36 goals and the others scored I don’t know how many. There is obviously a difference with Rakish Bingham on the pitch.

“We don’t need to pretend the quality is the same, there is a difference, but it doesn’t matter as you should still be good enough to score a goal. That’s our decision because we see them on a daily basis.

“The question is always the same, you need to find solutions. If it’s not working and you can’t take your chances you need to create more chances, then you’ll score goals.

“Obviously, I back them. They’re in our squad and I would never not back someone out of my squad.

“I think the most important thing is that they understand the situation is very clear, we need them and we need to rely on them if other players are not available.

“They try as hard as they can and obviously it’s not helping if you miss one chance here, one chance there. Then you start to struggle, mentally, and I need to try and give them confidence.

“When they feel the confidence from me and the group, and from the fans, everyone, media, whoever, then they will take their chances and we’ll win our games.”

Ebbsfleet host Boreham Wood at Stonebridge Road on Saturday before travelling to Eastleigh on Tuesday night.

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