Dusan Tadic is right back on track at Saints after holding a clear the meeting with Ronald Koeman.

The Serbian playmaker was unhappy to be left out of the starting line-up to face FC Midtjylland in the Europa League, and, unlike his manager, felt he was totally fit for selection.

Tadic didn’t take it lightly and asked for a meeting with Koeman where the pair discussed their thoughts openly and the midfielder hasn’t looked back since.

Koeman said: “I had some good discussions with Dusan in the last few weeks.

“He was not happy about some decisions that I took. For example he was on the bench against Midjytlland in the away game but I wasn’t happy about the performance of Dusan and of course, part of that problem, is that he was not really really fresh and he was struggling with his groin problem.

“It was a good conversation because he likes to play always, he likes to train and he is a fantastic professional but sometimes you have to open the eyes of some football players.

“We showed some clips to Dusan about why I was not happy about his performance but that was a good week.

“He is now really fit and you see the difference in the training sessions between now and what it was last year.”

Tadic had a flying start to last season, but a first year in the Premier League took its toll physically.

Koeman believes he won’t have the same problems this time round.

“He had a very good start last year, close to the winter he was struggling and he had difficulties at the end of the season. Now finally he is on his physical level and that’s normal,” reflected Koeman.

“I think it’s always important to have experience of the Premier League and the first season maybe you think you can play all the games but it’s too much, it’s too much, including international duties and travelling. I think he learned a lot about his first season in the Premier League.”

It says a lot about Tadic’s character that he asked Koeman for the meeting rather than merely sulking and Koeman admitted: “That’s good, I like that people. Of course, everybody likes the player on that level and it was a good open meeting. It was good.

“Sometimes it is good to do that because that can explain a lot of things and it is all about the respect from the manager to a player and a player to the manager.

“Of course, if you are unhappy, don’t keep your mouth (shut), talk, put it out of your body, but not every player is like that, sometimes you have more quiet players that keep it for themselves. You have to deal with both characters of players.”