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Sport

Ebbsfleet United manager Dennis Kutrieb on perfect start, complacency and facing Concord and Dover

By: Matthew Panting mpanting@thekmgroup.co.uk

Published: 05:00, 26 August 2022

Ebbsfleet manager Dennis Kutrieb insists his team’s perfect start to the season means nothing.

The Fleet have won all four National League South games, impressing again during a 4-2 home win over Farnborough last weekend.

Ebbsfleet manager Dennis Kutrieb. Picture: Keith Gillard

Dartford enjoyed an excellent start last season - winning seven of their first eight matches. But then followed that up by winning just twice in the next 13 games.

“You never know in the first 10 games,” warned Kutrieb. “If we lose the next four it hasn’t helped us that we’ve won the first four.

“I think the best example was Dartford last season, I don’t know how many games they won in the first 10 but then they couldn’t get a win until the new year or whenever it was.

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“So it doesn’t mean anything, it’s nice to have 12 points, it’s amazing to see the table and that’s nice for every fan - but not for me.

“I don’t get carried away because we’ve just played four games. There’s still 42 games to go and that’s more than we had to play last season in total.

“Nothing has happened so far, we’ve more teams than last season and many more games to play. If we sit here after 20 games I would talk differently but not after four games as that’s far too early.

“There’s a nice momentum and we want to try and keep it for as long as we can.”

Ebbsfleet have conceded two goals in each of their last three games, so there's still work for Kutrieb to do.

The Fleet boss was defiant in his answer if the goals against column at least means there's no complacency among their ranks.

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"I would rather take the results without conceding," he responded. "If someone gets complacent, which I cannot see at the moment, he wouldn’t be in our team any more.

"I can’t see a problem there. I would rather take (3-0, 3-0, 4-0) but it’s football and I can’t wish for whatever I want to wish for.

"We are still a side that has six or seven new players, we rotated last Tuesday and again on Saturday. It takes time to get all the distances right, the decision-making right and the reaction after we lost the ball.

"That takes time, it comes because we’re very early in the season. We just have to make sure we are up for every opponent and don’t get distracted from what we want to do and then we’ll always have a chance to win.

"If we win or lose a game, we will see, but we’ll always have a chance to win the game."

Ebbsfleet travel to Concord on Saturday before hosting Dover at Stonebridge Road on bank holiday Monday, a game that will be segregated.

While Kutrieb will no doubt rotate his squad again with two games in quick succession, the Fleet boss only has his sights on the first match.

"The boys need to be up for it on Saturday and Monday, because everyone tries to beat us," stated Kutrieb.

"If the boys are prepared and are on their top level, like they were in the first half against Farnborough for example, then it’s not easy to have the ball against us and create chances. That’s what we want to achieve.

"We definitely put every single thought on Concord, we try to pick the best team for Concord where we think we can beat them. We know exactly how they play and exactly what they are about, where we need to be careful and where we need to be up for it.

"It’s a small little pitch, it’s a game where people might try to bully us so we need to find our best XI that can go in a proper fight there because it’s not so much about football, it’s about delivering the basics in the right way as we will get our chances. We need to be able to deliver that first, then we can talk about Dover."

Midfielder Kieran Monlouis will feature for the first time this weekend while Alex Finney is likely to be out for a further week.

Goalkeeper Chris Haigh suffered a broken ankle at Eastbourne last week so third-choice Harrison Firth will return from his loan at Meridian.

Christian N'Guessan is suspended for the Concord match after his red card at Eastbourne.

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