Reds chief in selection poser

SIR ALEX Ferguson admits his playing resources could be stretched when Manchester United visit in-form Tottenham Hotspur tomorrow.

Wayne Rooney and Patrice Evra are suspended and there are injury concerns over Dimitar Berbatov, Michael Carrick and Rio Ferdinand. Cristiano Ronaldo picked up a knock in the 1-0 win over Sunderland last Saturday but is expected to be okay.

“We have to utilise our pool of players and pick the right team for a difficult game as Tottenham are in a good form,” explained the United manager.

Ferguson watched Spurs win 2-0 at West Ham on Monday night — and was suitably impressed.

But he is hoping his side can maintain their impressive run at White Hart Lane, where their last seven Premier League visits have yielded six victories and a draw last season.

Ferguson said: “We have a great record at Tottenham and hopefully that still exists after tomorrow.

“People always look forward to the Tottenham v Manchester United fixture. There is a lot of quality in the game and also goals at White Hart Lane.”

Ferguson says it is important for United to sign off on a winning note as they leave for the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan immediately after the game.

If United were to lose tomorrow and Liverpool win their next two fixtures, United will return from the Far East with a 12-point deficit to make up, albeit with two games in hand.

That underlines the importance of tomorrow’s match, which won’t be the formality it might have seemed less than two months ago as Ferguson has acknowledged.

When Juande Ramos was sacked as manager in October, Tottenham were anchored at the foot of the Premier League with two points from their first eight league matches.

Not even the most optimistic of Spurs fans can have dreamed of the turnabout in their season since Harry Redknapp quit Portsmouth to take charge.

Spurs have won nine of the 12 league and cup games since Redknapp took charge — and all with the same personnel which had failed miserably when Ramos was at the helm.

Striker Darren Bent, who Ramos claimed could not play in the same side as £13.8million summer buy Roman Pavlyunchenko, has scored 12 goals — and even the Russian has managed to find the net on seven occasions.

The win at West Ham, Redknapp’s old stamping ground on Monday, lifted Spurs three points clear of the bottom three. And they could even climb into the top half of the table with a victory against United.

Redknapp has also guided Spurs into the semi-finals of the Carling Cup and to the knock-out phase of the UEFA Cup.