“I don’t like to use this word, but it’s true we are not used to being in this position.

“We are in a difficult moment but I think we still have plenty of time and we have to be calm. The first thing is that we want to win every single game, every set of three points and be at the top of the table but at the moment we have to stick together.

“In games like against Birmingham you could see we were trying to do everything, playing wide, between the lines, always going forward, defending with two centre-backs only, full-backs going forward, and we were trying to do all we could to win the game.

“But the other team, with one free-kick and one shot from a long way out, it’s really unlucky because we had a lot of opportunities to kill the game before as well.

“This year, we are really unlucky. I don’t like saying that either, because it’s not only bad luck in football, but it’s true we are trying to change this position and whatever we do is not working.”

Riera had missed the previous six games with a hamstring problem before being forced off with a recurrence of the injury just before half-time against Birmingham.

And the winger said: “It is the same as before, the same feeling, so we will see in the scan but if it’s like the other one it will be three or four weeks.”

Meanwhile, former Liverpool midfielder Vladimir Smicer has been named as Czech Republic manager only a day after he announced his retirement from playing at the age of 36.