Reds must try to expose Spurs' defensive frailties

I really hope Liverpool play 4-4-2 and try to expose Tottenham’s weaknesses at White Hart Lane on Sunday, writes Phil Thompson in the Liverpool Echo.

Spurs are very offensive and have a lot of top class players but they have defensive frailties.

They miss centre-backs Ledley King and Michael Dawson and their replacements William Gallas and Younes Kaboul have struggled at times.

Left-back Benoit Assou-Ekotto's positional play is poor and Alan Hutton is more of an offensive right-back.

They leak goals and we have to try to capitalise on that by putting them under pressure and getting at them.

Also in our favour is the fact that we've had a free week while Spurs played Werder Bremen in the Champions League last night.

They've had some problems with league matches following European games - after beating Inter Milan they lost at Bolton. And if there are some tired legs we need to make the most of that.

Going forward, Spurs are exciting to watch and they produced a fantastic fightback to win at Arsenal.

Everyone is raving about Gareth Bale and he's had an excellent season but for me Rafael Van der Vaart has been one of the stars of the Premier League.

At £8million on transfer deadline day the Dutchman was an absolute steel and he's been an outstanding signing for them.

If Peter Crouch plays Spurs will hit diagonal balls to the far post for him to knock down with van der Vaart running into the area. We need to be wary of that.

The good news is that we're going there on the back of our biggest win of the season.

It was a good victory against West Ham and it was achieved without our captain who has been our most consistent performer so far this season.

The players pulled together and proved they can perform without Steven Gerrard.

It was pleasing to see Roy Hodgson play 4-4-2 and I hope he sticks with it this weekend.

That result last weekend will have given everyone a boost but we all know we face a much tougher test on Sunday.

This story has been reproduced from today's media. It does not necessarily represent the position of Liverpool Football Club.