DUSAN Tadic believes that Saints’ shortcomings against the leading sides this season is down to lack of experience.

Claude Puel’s men have not won against any of the top six in nine attempts in the Premier League, which is a considerable change from last season when Saints beat all the big guns.

The Serbian playmaker puts it down to coming up against these teams with less experience in their ranks.

“We have some good moments, but we miss experience in these kind of games,” he said after the 4-2 defeat at Premier League leaders Chelsea. “We miss that in these kind games.”

“We had more experience and we didn’t do some small mistakes and this is the difference. Now we are a more young team and it’s normal.

“You can see in our game we have very good moments and very bad moments.

“We need to correct this.”

Tadic doesn’t necessarily view the lack of mature players as a negative thing.

“You see potential and this is a good school for everyone,” he added.

Now, Tadic has urged Saints to get back on track after back-to-back defeats against Hull City on Saturday at St Mary’s.

Saints lost to the relegation battlers at the KCOM Stadium earlier this season and want to atone for that.

“It’s very important [to bounce back],” he said. “We need to show that, but we’ve had two tough games, Chelsea and City are very good opponents.

“We are a young team and some players play for the first time against them [the big sides] and it’s not easy, but now it’s Hull and it’s very important that we react and be back on track.”

Saints are now in a position where they highest they are likely to climb is to 8th place.

With their ambitions restrict, Tadic insists Saints will stay motivated to prove to the fans that they want to construct a positive end to the campaign.

“We are professional and we need to be motivated always,” he said. “You’re playing for the club, the fans, for everyone and you need to be motivated to show them you want to win for them.”