Friedel and Laursen on Goals on Sunday

[JJ-AV]

I don't think we'd have qualified for the Champs League should he have stayed fit, it wasn't as close as that.

We also had 2-3 games without him that we won (and kept clean sheets) despite being under the kosh.

We were too one dimensional, sucking up pressure and hitting teams on the counter wasn't gonna last.

Not beating Arsenal at Villa Park in the 2-2 was what cost us I think, beginning of the end - despite the heroic effort to get a point.

[serbentoflight]

I've nicked Laursen's quote for my "thingy-at-the-bottom-of-the-message" - Thanks.

[KevinGage]

I don't think we'd have qualified for the Champs League should he have stayed fit, it wasn't as close as that.

We also had 2-3 games without him that we won (and kept clean sheets) despite being under the kosh.

We were too one dimensional, sucking up pressure and hitting teams on the counter wasn't gonna last.

Not beating Arsenal at Villa Park in the 2-2 was what cost us I think, beginning of the end - despite the heroic effort to get a point.

I broadly agree.

And the way Arsenal managed to remain unbeaten from about December 08 onwards was pretty impressive.

But would they have managed that with more pressure on, particularly with an 8 point gap in our favour going into the final two and a bit months of the season?

We'll never know.

But I doubt we'd have been so open and all over the shop as we were versus Tottenham at home, Liverpool away and so on.

[Brend'Watkins]

Is Laursen a legend? 

He is in my book.  I know for sure that goal against Fulham and Vidigic's yesterday would not have happened had we had a fit Laursen in the team. 

[Concrete John]

It's impossible to say what would/wouldn't have happened had Laursen stayed fit.  But bearing in mind how close we got and how much we missed him, I'd find it hard to argue with anyone who says we would have got 4th. 

[KevinGage]

We missed his impact two fold at the back end of that campaign.

The stability and control he had at the back and the mayhem he could cause in the opposition penalty area from free kicks or corners. Even if he didn't score (and he scored a few) he'd tie defenders up enough for someone else in our side to benefit.

[SoccerHQ]

Isn't Laursen back in Denmark now? So not sure he'd have been right in the action when the previous manager left.

With Friedel, he's simply a much better keeper than the one Houllier had at Liverpool so that was a non issue for me.

[BannedUserIAT]

When it comes to assigning 'legend' status, I often think to how i'd design a montage of players in a hall-of-fame. You'd have the players that did something special at some stage of their Villa career to make them memorable, then the good players, the great and at the end of the wall, i'd have the legends. For me, Laursen is right at the end of the 'great' section, just before you get to the likes of Sid, Sir Brian, etc.

[Irish villain]

Laursen filled me with confidence for those couple of seasons when he was fully fit. You knew we would be solid at the back when he was in the team. You knew he would throw himself in the way of anything that came his way. He was brave, composed and had high intelligence and concentration levels. He also contributed a fair few goals from corners.

For me, he's a villa legend.

[CorkVilla]

I think the moment we lost Martin Laurson was when things really started to go wrong under O'Neill. He was our captain and arguably our most inspirational players. You could say that, even with the arrival of Dunne and Collins, we are still struggling to replace him.

Just a thought...

[hawkeye]

I heard from inside the club how Laursen was respected and the way that he conducted himself, he had time for everybody and was respected by everbody, he loved the Club and was the perfect captain. He was certainly a leader, great captain and very very good player.

[brontebilly]

To use Johnny Giles lingo, a good player but not a great one. The club were very good to him too don't forget. I think the goalscoring run he went on is clouding posters opinions of him as a player. He was superb in the air but tended to spend a bit of time on the ground too if memory serves correct. Despite being partnered with Mellberg, Cahill, Ridgewell, Knight, Davies and Cuellar - I don't think any partnership he was part of was as solid as Dunne and Collins. The stats would back that up too.

The season he got injured we kept playing well til February. Remember a superb win away to Blackburn after which it all went horribly wrong. Curtis Davies in particular lost all form but Luke Young at left back, Cuellar and a host of others went to pot at the same time. MON lack of rotation and the disastrous change of formation following the signing of Emile Heskey were more to blame.