Ronald Koeman believes Dusan Tadic is returning to top form again – but has told him he needs to shoot more.

The Serbian midfielder was a revelation in the first third of the season, as he notched up assists and goals as rampant Saints started the campaign flying.

However, a loss of form and niggling injuries hampered him for several months.

Now, though, Tadic is looking back towards his best again, netting the penalty to bag a 1-1 draw at Chelsea last weekend.

Koeman is delighted to see his creative talent getting back to himself.

He said: “Yes. Dusan had a difficult time with some groin problems and he was not used to the Premier League. Maybe that was difficult for him, but he’s now on the way back.

“He’s close to his best shape, what he showed in the beginning of the season and that’s always extra qualities for the team, if that kind of player is on the best level – that means a lot for the team.

“It’s up to Graziano, Mane, Dusan. You need to make that difference in difficult games. For sure at home, there’s not a lot of space to play, it’s difficult. Then you need individual qualities of players to break open and that’s important.”

One of the frustrations with Tadic has been his enthusiasm for providing assists, seemingly above and beyond scoring himself.

It is certainly something Koeman has spoken to Tadic about.

“That’s one of the comments what I had towards Dusan, that he has to finish sometimes,” admitted Koeman.

“He has a good left, and sometimes looks like to give an assist to the goal for him is more important than scoring by himself.

“He needs to shoot more than he is doing, because around the box you have to shoot, and if you don’t shoot you don’t score.”

Tadic did get himself back on the scoresheet at Stamford Bridge, showing great character to take the penalty having missed with his last attempt from the spot against today’s visitors to St Mary’s, Burnley, at Turf Moor in December.

“It’s good. He took his responsibility,” said Koeman.

“He missed one against Burnley – it’s always difficult. We saw Bayer Leverkusen, Atletico Madrid – it’s not easy to score a penalty, and he took his responsibility on a difficult moment, 1-0 down. I hope that was an important moment for him to get his full confidence back and to show his qualities.

“It was a difficult time for him and he had some pains, he was not really 100 per cent.

“Maybe I had to put him a little bit earlier on the bench, maybe, but it’s always what you think is the best for the team and he was always doing the best for the team, even when he was not really on a good physical way.

“It’s good for him to see that, to learn about this, his first season in the Premier League.”