Ebbsfleet United manager Dennis Kutrieb says mentality is nearly as important as fitness during pre-season

Ebbsfleet manager Dennis Kutrieb believes getting the right mentality into his squad is a big part of pre-season.

The Fleet’s main priority will be their fitness levels with the start of the season less than a month away.

But Kutrieb is also keen to ensure his players are in the right frame of mind to take on the challenge of National League football.

“First and foremost we need to get the fitness right,” explained Kutrieb.

“Secondly we need to get the right mentality to be ready as it’s not easy when you’ve just played an outstanding season and won most of the games, with people knowing if we just turn up and play good enough then we didn’t need to rely on the opponent to have a bad game.

“But this season will be different, we need to always have a good game just to have a chance to win. We came away a few times last season when we didn’t play well but we still won our games. This might be a bigger challenge this season.

“After that we need to get everyone back on the same page, the players that were with us and the new ones, and then try to find the right balance for the big amount of games ahead.

“We will need everyone in the squad before the end of September when we’ve already played nearly a third of all the games.

“From this point of view, winning in pre-season and having clean sheets is always good so on the surface, everything is good at the moment, but we’ll see exactly what we have to work on and get better at as we go on.

“For us, just like everyone else who was successful in the past, you have to make sure you’re ready for the next challenge and don’t think we’ve achieved something from last season. We need to get going and make sure we have the right mentality and not take it for granted.

“It will be tougher