Ebbsfleet boss Dennis Kutrieb says striker Dominic Poleon is no longer a luxury player in his team.

The 28-year-old striker has scored five goals in six games to help the Fleet maintain a 100% record in National League South.

Poleon is clearly back in favour with the Fleet boss after spending the majority of the second half of last season on the bench.

“Dom had an outstanding pre-season, he changed his whole attitude massively, his work-rate has turned around 80%,” explained Kutrieb.

“It’s completely different to last season and he works so hard for the team now. Last season he was kind of a luxury player when he wanted to do the nice things going forward and scoring goals. Don’t get me wrong, that’s his job as well.

“But in this league you have to do the other side of the work as well, the dirty work we call it in Germany. He’s delivering this since pre-season so he’s changed. I told him when we extended his contract that if he changes his work-rate off the ball, he’s a massive player and no one can stop him.”

Those words have clearly had the desired effect and Poleon’s influence is obvious for all to see on the field.

He’s also a great character away from the pitch according to the Fleet boss.

“It’s all about the team, that’s right, but in the changing room he is massive,” said Kutrieb.

“Everyone is good with him and he has a good influence in there. I told him, if you change then you’ll change the whole mentality on the pitch for everyone.

“It’s similar to Luke O’Neill, for example, he has a winning mentality and doesn’t want to lose one header, he wants to score goals, he wants to win games and you could see that at Eastbourne and at Weymouth.

“We’ve made a few good signings and then changed the work-rate from some of our players who have been with us for a longer time. I told Dom if you turn up in this way you will score more goals than last season and he’s taken it on board.

“I can see it, last season he always scored the second, third or fourth goal. This season he’s scoring the first goal for us, to put us ahead and that’s the difference. As a striker you don’t think about it but if you have a manager who tells you this stat is really interesting, then he takes it on board and changes it then that’s massive and it’s outstanding for me to see. He’s a very important player for us at the moment.”

Kutrieb sees Poleon’s improvement as a personal success story.

It’s easy to look at Fleet’s squad and cast claims about their spending power - many of which will be justified at National League South level. But the Fleet boss is improving even the most seasoned professionals and it’s something he’s proud of.

“It’s maybe one of the biggest achievements so far from my point of view,” explained Kutrieb.

“He’s a very experienced player and it’s not just him, even with Chris Solly as well from what I see him doing now to how he was in the beginning. It was never a problem with work-rate but the quality that he delivers now by working on a daily basis with him, these are the things that you love as a manager when experienced players are changing their whole football behaviour.

“They could easily say I’ve played Championship, League 1 and League 2, what do you want to explain? I’ll play how I did in the past and I don’t want to change it.

“That’s really nice to see that even these players are taking things on board and trying to do it the right way as it’s the only way you can be successful.”

Ebbsfleet are at home to Bath in National League South on Saturday.