Ebbsfleet boss Dennis Kutrieb admitted he needed to freshen up his squad after their poor run of form.

The Fleet started life in the National League with four wins from seven games but have picked up just one win in 13 games across all competitions and sit just one point above the relegation zone.

Kutrieb has drafted in former Liverpool and Bournemouth man Jordon Ibe, Huddersfield centre-back Mustapha Olagunju and ex-Gillingham striker Dominic Samuel in recent weeks in a bid to help change their fortunes around.

“I’m not a fan of doing that,” explained Kutrieb. “Even now you can see that Mustapha played an outstanding game for us on Saturday (October 28, against Dagenham) again but he’s not seeing the pictures that we play.

“Matthias Fanimo was out for three or four months, he can’t see the pictures we want to play but he still had a good game for us.

“This will just get better over the next couple of weeks as they will get used to how we want to play.

“That’s the reason why I’m not a fan of it (signing players mid-season) as that will take time now. We need to accept this period when we maybe lose games because things are not working perfectly for us.

“We’re not creating as many chances as we did last season - still enough to win a game of football but not enough by our own high standards.

“From this point of view, it takes time. Now it will take time for Dominic Samuel to get used to it as well.

“That’s the situation we have to accept, it’s a decision we made as we said we need more players that can help us. We will be fine but we need to make sure we don’t lose too many points.”

Samuel has been without a club since leaving Scottish outfit Ross County in the close season.

The 29-year-old forward had hoped to land a deal in the Football League but now has an opportunity to impress at Stonebridge Road.

“He hasn’t been training with us but he wanted to play in the League and he was waiting for something to come up for him,” explained Kutrieb.

“For whatever reason, the deal that he was waiting for has not happened.

“We were always kind of in touch and always interested and said ‘now’s the time because you want to play football’ and we want to have someone who can help us up front.

“Rakish Bingham is not far, far away, Jordon Ibe is coming closer and closer for us.”

Samuel’s arrival has meant the departure of forward Shaq Coulthirst, who has joined National League South Braintree on loan until the end of January.

Coulthirst has failed to find the target in nine league outings this term and Kutrieb hopes that a move can help him get back on the scoring trail.

“I think Shaq was very unlucky for us,” said the Fleet boss. “Whenever he had chances to play, he couldn’t score a goal. He had very good chances to score and sometimes it just doesn’t fall for a striker.

“We had a chat with him and agreed that maybe if we change the environment for him it will be a different challenge and he can refocus.

“By the end of January hopefully he can score five, six, seven goals for them and come back with confidence.

“He’s such a good player, a great character, who is working hard, he works his socks off and is unlucky that it’s not falling for him. We felt if we change the environment, he might come back and help us.”