Ebbsfleet manager Dennis Kutrieb has insisted he’s not a one-trick pony.

The Fleet boss has consistently stuck to a 3-5-2 formation during his three years in charge at Stonebridge Road.

But, after shipping six goals at Altrincham last month, Kutrieb has switched to a back four in the past two home games, as well as different shapes in forward positions.

Unlike the New Year’s Day massacre at Dartford last season when the Fleet changed both their pattern of play and formation, Kutrieb insists that he won’t change his philosophy.

“I would be stupid if I said I’ll stick to my plan no matter what because sometimes you need to adapt it to the league, to the players who are available,” said the Fleet boss.

“You need to find who are the in-form players at that moment who can help you to get three points.

“You want to see that everyone understands what it is about because at the end of the day we need to make sure we get points on the board and not ‘we’re playing nice’ or ‘we’re sticking to the plan’.

“We’ll stick to the principles and that will never change, because they don’t have to. But if you need to adapt from a technical point or whatever, then that is no problem.”

The Fleet ended a run of five games without a win by beating Boreham Wood 3-1 last Saturday in the National League but followed that up with a 5-2 defeat at Eastleigh on Tuesday.

Speaking before the midweek loss, Kutrieb believed his side have only been outplayed for 90 minutes twice so far this season.

“We were far away in parts (of games),” he admitted. “At Altrincham in the first half we were far away because we approached the game totally wrong but second half we were all over them.

“You can’t say it when you lose 6-1 but they were happy after the game that they got the win because they knew if we scored the chance at 4-2 and the penalty for 4-3 it would have been a completely different game.

“There were maybe two games in the whole season so far that I thought over 90 minutes, two halves, we were far away from the opponent but apart from that, we’ve matched all of them.

“Even Chesterfield had a tough game against us, without the foul it was a draw. Barnet was unlucky for us with the injury to Jack Wakely.

“We can see that we’re not far away in this league but it’s small margins and you need to make sure you’re on top of it and get the three points somehow.”

Criticism from fans is not new for Kutrieb. He came in for plenty of stick when losing four successive games in National League South at the end of 2022 - including back-to-back losses against neighbours Dartford.

But he’d seen enough signs during the Fleet’s recent barren run of results to know that a positive return wasn’t far away.

“I think when we had the four defeats over Christmas that was more tough for me to take,” said Kutrieb.

“That was two derbies that we wanted to win but we got battered - it was more tough than now.

“Yes, we’re missing some players and we have been a bit unlucky. We could have won on the Tuesday against Dorking so the win was coming.

“It’s not like I was thinking what’s going on here and that a win isn’t coming or I don’t know how the opponents are much better now. We need to find the challenges and adapt to this league.

“It will still take time, I would say minimum until Boxing Day when we have played everyone once and we really know the full National League.

“Then we can say now we’ve played everyone, and we know exactly where we are.

“It’s been tough and it’s not easy to find sleep and a good mood but, in general, it was not the toughest spell [I’ve had here so far].”

Ebbsfleet host FC Halifax on Saturday (3pm).