New Ebbsfleet United manager Danny Searle says match planning gives him flexibility to make bold in-game decisions

New Ebbsfleet boss Danny Searle has only been in charge for two games but he’s not afraid to make big decisions.

Searle was named permanent manager on Tuesday - just a fortnight after initially replacing Dennis Kutrieb on an interim basis.

But he’s made such a big impression since arriving at Stonebridge Road that Ebbsfleet couldn’t look anywhere else.

Searle has already demonstrated a bold managerial style. He set his team up with an attacking 3-5-2 formation at runaway National League leaders Chesterfield on Saturday.

But, realising that his team were in danger of being swept away, Searle changed his formation as soon as Chesterfield went 2-1 up. He knew he couldn’t afford to wait until half-time.

By the time the Fleet restarted the game, Ben Chapman moved to right-back, Rakish Bingham had dropped back into midfield and Fleet reverted to a 4-5-1 line-up.

“We prepped for it,” revealed Searle, who planned the potential change with assistant Anwar Uddin, coach Chris Solly and goalkeeping coach Jeff Richardson.

“We did it in our pre-match and said if I make the call then everyone needs to know where they’re going to go. We needed to make the changes.

“If we had waited, Chesterfield could have been out of sight and I think that’s part of your management growth. It’s one of the things I’ve been working on within myself, understanding the key moments in games where you have to make changes.

“I think we did that well and it’s not just me, it’s Anwar, Chris and Jeff. We had a conversation and worked together to make sure we got it right.

“If we are umming and ahing on the sidelines then we’re not sure who’s going where. We literally put two teams up, we worked on an in-game change where we didn’t have to make a sub to get us