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Dennis Kutrieb says he will carry on rotating his Ebbsfleet squad despite their winning start to the season.
The Fleet made four changes to the team that beat Tonbridge 5-1 on the opening day for their 3-1 success over Hemel Hempstead on Saturday.
Ebbsfleet will make more changes when they visit Chelmsford on Bank Holiday Monday and Kutrieb explained that it wasn’t a gamble to shuffle his pack against Hemel after such a dominant display over Tonbridge.
“I don’t see it as a brave move as I trust my players,” said the Fleet boss. “That’s not just a saying, I trust them 100 per cent.
“I always said to the players from the beginning when I arrived here, I will be honest with you and I will always tell you the truth, if you are good or bad it doesn’t matter - I will always tell you the truth.
“I would be a bad manager if they played a good pre-season, we get a 5-1 win in the first game, we have a good squad and they train really well, it wouldn’t feel very honest if I go with the same team for Saturday and Monday.
“It wouldn’t be the truth that I trust everyone. But I do trust everyone and that’s the reason why I put everyone on the pitch when possible and give them game time to show they are good enough to be in our squad. They did it very well and hopefully they do it again on Monday.
“Everyone is fit for Monday but we play Chelmsford and then again (versus Havant) on Saturday so we need to manage that. We will make the decision after training on Sunday who will go for Monday and who we will protect for next Saturday’s game.
“One reason why Paxman came off after 65 minutes was that I need him on Monday as well, that’s my job to find the best XI for both games and that’s what we’ve already planned. That’s the reason why we had some changes.”
Ebbsfleet took 41 minutes to open the scoring against Hemel on Saturday, in contrast to their fast start against Tonbridge.
They remained patient and kept to their possession-based style of playing while Kutrieb was also pleased to see captain Lee Martin open his account for the season in the second half.
“I said to the boys before the game if we are 0-0 at half-time we can’t get worried, we can’t get nervous or start to moan about things,” added the Fleet manager.
“You need to be focused during 90 minutes, you can’t decide every game in 45 minutes. I didn’t expect to decide this game in the first 45 minutes and I was happy that we had the lead at half-time.
“We watched both their games and knew Hemel were not the team they were last week versus Braintree, they let their manager down and needed to show a reaction. Apart from the first five minutes, we played a good game again. Even after they scored, I didn’t feel they could damage us in a big way.
“You need to show resistance in this league if you want to win these types of games. Last season we struggled in these games a little bit but it was a good performance from my point of view today. We were clinical, we could have scored two or three more goals, but it doesn’t matter because we wanted the three points.
“I don’t care who gets the goals. I was really happy for our skipper (Lee Martin). He was everywhere today and he was a big threat. He’s got his goal and you want to have something on paper, especially when you are an offensive player.”
Ebbsfleet travel to Chelmsford on Bank Holiday Monday, and Kutrieb is expecting a difficult encounter. With the running track at Melbourne Park, he’s also anticipating a different type of contest.
“Chelmsford are a good opponent, they won at Bath and that’s not easy so they will have plenty of confidence,” said Kutrieb.
“They are physical, have two good strikers up front and are a big threat so we will need to be prepared.
“We need to defend even better because they can be a big threat. Every ball is away for 45 seconds with the running track so it can be annoying every time you get the ball.
“It will be the first time away, we need to adapt to hopefully get another three points.”
