Ebbsfleet boss Dennis Kutrieb has told his players they can’t afford to get distracted by refereeing decisions this season.

The Fleet felt a number of key moments went against them in the previous campaign, but Kutrieb has insisted they need to take a different approach on the pitch this term.

“The only thing I have told the boys is that they need to get on with it and if there is something where we have to talk then it’s me or our captain - and that’s it,” stated Kutrieb.

“Everyone else must accept and respect the decision and try to be better and make sure we don’t get distracted.

“For me it’s not a problem to talk about it because I don’t need to play, but the players shouldn’t get distracted from it so I want to take the pressure away from them.

“Sometimes you feel as a player that it’s so unfair, then can’t bring your best performance and I’d rather say that I try to deal with it and they try to play.

“Everyone has to do a job and it’s my job to talk to the referee, not the players’ job. If someone needs to talk then our captain can do it but we need to improve and just accept it because we can’t change it anyway.”

The inconsistency of officials has been one of the biggest contrasts for Kutrieb, who is about to start his third season in English football.

The German manager is still struggling to understand what has gone before but wants his team to be even better so referee calls cannot influence results.

“Everyone makes mistakes - referees, opponents, goalkeepers, us, everyone does it - and that’s not a problem in general,” he added.

“It becomes a problem when you have the feeling that it’s just one way.

“I don’t know if they don’t know the rules or want to decide things in different ways - I still don’t understand it after two years. It’s not like I see them and they are just bad.

“It’s a little bit like when I watch us back, my question is what have we done wrong at our club in the past that we get treated this way as it doesn’t feel like this referee wasn’t good today and he will be better next week.

“If I watch all the games back, I saw so many games where the quality is not the best but I have the feeling we did something wrong in the past and that’s not right. They must change something as you can’t always have that feeling.

“We have the experience now to see that we can’t rely on a good referee. We need to make sure we’re better - regardless of how bad the referee is.

“I don’t want to talk during the season that we lost because the referee was really bad or had an off-day or whatever.”

Kutrieb was talking after already seeing some questionable decisions go against his side in pre-season.

He added: “We started the pre-season how we ended the season which I don’t like but we need to just get on with referees and their decisions, even if they are not in our favour.

“When this happens in pre-season as well you just make everyone aware that we need to be better regardless of how good or bad the referee is.”

Fleet drew 1-1 with Corinthian on Wednesday, Shaq Coulthirst opening the scoring.

They finish their pre-season campaign at home to Herne Bay on Saturday, kick-off 3pm.