Furious Ronald Koeman slammed Sadio Mane after the defeat to Norwich, calling his ill-discipline “very painful.”

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Koeman revealed that he had warned Mane about his poor attitude in training on Thursday, and was stunned that the player then turned up late for the final team meeting at the club’s hotel in Norwich, two hours before kick-off at Carrow Road.

It was the second occasion Mane had committed that misdemeanour in time at Saints, and he was duly dropped from the starting line-up, meaning a late reshuffle in a game Saints went on to lose 1-0.

A fuming Koeman was asked whether he had been let down by some players and responded: “By some players yes. Of course.

“We had a different line-up for the game. Sadio was in, one of the 11 players to start, but we have rules in the team.

“He was doing a big mistake before the game in our last meeting, two hours before, that he came late, and that’s impossible.

“Everybody know then you have a sanction. You don’t start.

“Then you have to make changes in the team, you have to make changes in all the set-pieces and everything.

“I don’t understand. I don’t understand a player who is coming late to the last meeting.

“My message to Sadio two days ago was that I think he wasn’t really focussed and concentrated and that happened two days ago in the training sessions.”

Koeman, who also criticised Victor Wanyama’s needless red card which came just three minutes before Norwich scored the winner, added: “Yes (let down by Mane), not the manager but much more the players, his teammates, because we are a club, Southampton is a club, we like to treat everyone very respectful.

“You have responsibilities as a player to the fans, to your teammates, to the board, to the technical staff. That’s very painful.

“Losing a game is part of a job, critics what we will get, and it’s normal if you don’t win and you are now on the position on the table that everybody knows, that is normal, part of our job. But some we do it by ourselves.”

Koeman admitted Mane’s attitude could be because of the opening of the transfer window but insisted only the player himself could answer that.

"Maybe. I don’t know," he said. "Ask him really why. Ask him why. I don’t know."

This was Mane's second time of being late and getting dropped, the other incident occuring in February 2015.

It was put to Koeman it must be doubly frustrating, and he revealed a talk chairman Ralph Krueger gave to the players the night before the game.

"Yes, because you start 2016 and we had a great talk from our chairman yesterday about Southampton, about the club, about the team, about the respect, about the ambition, spirit, focus, concentration and this happened.

"Also I am angry about the second yellow card from Victor.

"A player with his experience needs to need if you have a yellow already on the game you can’t do that tackle on that position on the pitch."