Ronald Koeman feels that Serbian midfielder Dusan Tadic is working too hard to rediscover his form and that he needs to rest more.

In the first half of the season Dusan Tadic was being touted as a potential player of the year for Saints, however in the last couple of months he has gone off the boil a little although as he proved at Manchester United there is still signs of that spark that marked him out as a special talent.

Now Ronald Koeman has urged his player to take it easy a bit more and rest raher than try to rediscover his form by working too hard on the teaining ground.

Tadic's desire to get back to form was shown when he turned up at Staplewood on his day off after only being used as a late sub against QPR at the weekend, but Koeman thinks that hunger to succeed at the moment might be part of the problem rather than the solution.

“I think he was a little bit down in the last few games, but all about freshness, all about physical and one side I like Dusan very much because if he don’t play on that level what he by himself expects and what we expect he always thinking ‘I have to do more’ and he’s trying to do more, trying to train harder, but sometimes you need more rest."

“But it’s in his mind, and that’s very positive.

“But sometimes a little bit less, take a day off, because last weekend after QPR, ok, he came in the last ten, 12 minutes and the Sunday was a day off and he was coming to do training.

“On one side, I appreciate that quality, that personality, but on the other side you need sometimes a rest to be really 100 per cent and that’s something difficult for Dusan.”

Koeman is also concerned that several players who have been used to a winter break like Tadic have found it hard since Xmas without that rest to re charge their batteries.

“I think always players from outside they need time to adapt to the Premier League, to adapt that you don’t have a winter break, what they used to have,” he reflected.

“I think that’s a little bit a problem for Dusan. He had some groin problems, but he played every game. But because we didn’t have Mane, we didn’t have Jay Rodriguez, we didn’t have Sam Gallagher and maybe we forced a little bit Dusan on that time.

“Now the situation is different and that makes a team strong that you have more possibilities and more options as the manager.”

So the message from the manager is clear, Dusan Tadic is clearly a very important part of this squad, but after a tough couple of months when he like others have had to play on because of a long injury list, perhaps now Tadic needs a rest or at least to step back and not try too hard and then hopefully the form of the first half of the season will start to return.

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