Laudrup v Cooper

Who was better Laudrup or Cooper?

  • Total voters
    476
Cooper was my first football hero. Played football with beauty/elegance and his own unique style. Had a great range of passing and shooting.
Laudrup had that electric burst of pace which often allowed him to get past defenders without showing the ball skills Cooper did.
Prefer watching Cooper to Laudrup but suspect Laudrup was more difficult to play against with his pace and skills.

Interesting thread this but I won't be voting and putting a ranking on them.
 
Cooper second greatest ranger ever next to John Grieg and having seen him in a poor rangers side drag us up to a level of success just edges it for me
 
Without a doubt Laudrup was far better. Probably along with Baxter and Gazza the best I have seen in 61 yrs of watching.
The FF love affair with Davy Cooper amazes me as like some other posters I can remember a lot of games where he did next to nothing. As someone said when he felt like it he was a genius. I also can't rember DC "carrying the team" too often.
As an oldie I also agree that Wee Willie Henderson was superior to DC
 
EKblue said:
Cooper second greatest ranger ever next to John Grieg and having seen him in a poor rangers side drag us up to a level of success just edges it for me
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I'm sorry but that is nonsense, Davie was one of the most frustrating players I saw, A genius when in the mood, but not often enough to be anywhere near the second greatest ever Ranger.
Be lucky to be in top ten.
 
Robert Marshall said:
I'm sorry but that is nonsense, Davie was one of the most frustrating players I saw, A genius when in the mood, but not often enough to be anywhere near the second greatest ever Ranger.
Be lucky to be in top ten.
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We will need to agree to differ but I didn’t make the comment without seeing both in action I have an opinion as do you in your opinion mines in nonsense I would ask are you forgetting Laudrups last season when he downed tools and posted it in
 
EKblue said:
We will need to agree to differ but I didn’t make the comment without seeing both in action I have an opinion as do you in your opinion mines in nonsense I would ask are you forgetting Laudrups last season when he downed tools and posted it in
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Are you forgetting Jardine, DJ, Waddell, Woodburn, Cox, shaw, Morton, Meiklejohn, Young, Smith, McCoist, Gough, Fergie, I could go on and on?
that's why I said Laudrup had 3 great seasons, I thought he was the most skillful player I seen in a blue jersey but not a Legend in the purest sense.
Ps it is your opinion but nowhere near the truth. imo
 
EKblue said:
We will need to agree to differ but I didn’t make the comment without seeing both in action I have an opinion as do you in your opinion mines in nonsense I would ask are you forgetting Laudrups last season when he downed tools and posted it in
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Did you see Coop in 77/78 season?
 
I watched Cooper destroy us 3 times for Clydebank before signing for us. He was supremely gifted and I loved him to bits when he played for us, however the Prince of Denmark is head and shoulders above Coop.
 
I think Laudrup was “better”, he absolutely destroyed teams when he was on form and he was consistently brilliant for a number of seasons. But he was also surrounded by quality players who gave him a platform.

But Coop was and will always be my favourite. Our sole representative in Scotland squads when I cared about that sort of thing, the one player we had for a number of years who could unlock any defence with a moment of brilliance and an utterly rock solid and dependable penalty taker. He carried a lamentable Rangers team for a number of seasons until Souness arrived and then was still good enough to be the star turn in a championship winning side. Cut him and he would have bled red white and blue. A Rangers man to the core.

I just feel privileged to have been able to watch 2 club legends at their very best and hope that one day we’ll be arguing if Kent or Aribo should be mentioned in the same breath as them.
 
Laudrup for me was a great footballing athlete,skills in abundance,strong,big and touches only gifted to great footballers.
I voted for Cooper the most naturally gifted footballer ive ever seen in a Rangers jersey.
No one comes close and iam talking about watching him from when he signed to the present day.
He was born with that skill,it couldnt be taught to anyone what this man had!
 
DamBuster72 said:
A distraction from the boredom of International week and Takeover Panel nonsense.

Wee bit of fun for older bears who had the pleasure of seeing both...

Who was better and why?

Poll attached
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An old comparison Laudrup was Cooper with pace. Simples
 
Not voting as it means one of them loses.

One was quite simply the most naturally gifted football genius I have ever seen.
One was the most brilliant all round footballer I have ever seen.

Just eternally grateful I saw every minute of both their Rangers careers.
 
Robert Marshall said:
Davie Cooper could have played in any decade
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Perhaps, but he’d have fared better playing in a different era with better management and in a stronger Rangers side with two out-and-out wingers. He was unlucky in that respect - we only got to see him at his best intermittently.

I’d place Bobby Russell in a similar bracket.


The game in Scotland was becoming faster, more frenetic and more physical from the late 70s onwards (Ferguson’s Aberdeen led the way) and this didn’t suit his style of play.

Brian Laudrup could cope easily because of his size and speed.

Davie Cooper was better with a dead ball, but I’d still choose Laudrup. He was a player I rated in the very top bracket before we bought him and I was genuinely excited when we did.

I saw the games Davie Cooper played against us for Clydebank and he was obviously a thoroughbred. Yet I still have the feeling that we seldom got the best out of him.
 
Otis Blue said:
Don’t talk pish

it is up for debate that’s why we’re having one. And I am being perfectly honest when I say that Davie Cooper was better.
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Davie was my childhood hero. My first strip was the Scotland 1986 one with a no.11 on the back.

I wanted him to be him so much that I spent days / weeks / months kicking a ball with my left foot to the point it became my dominant one.

When he left Rangers, I wasn't sure whether I was should go and support Motherwell as he meant so much to me.

At 16 or so, his death upset more more than any other passing in my life at the time.

Brian Laudrup is the best Rangers player I've ever seen by some distance.
 
EKblue said:
We will need to agree to differ but I didn’t make the comment without seeing both in action I have an opinion as do you in your opinion mines in nonsense I would ask are you forgetting Laudrups last season when he downed tools and posted it in
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Brian Laudrup was, by far, our best player in 97/98.

If everyone had his professionalism we'd have won the league easily.

Go and watch the games from that season on Stephen Millars Facebook page and tell me he phoned it in. Its one of theee things that people repeat with no real basis and it becomes a thing.

People needed a scapegoat for us losing that league. To pin it on him is madness.
 
Laudrup1 said:
Brian Laudrup was, by far, our best player in 97/98.

If everyone had his professionalism we'd have won the league easily.

Go and watch the games from that season on Stephen Millars Facebook page and tell me he phoned it in. Its one of theee things that people repeat with no real basis and it becomes a thing.

People needed a scapegoat for us losing that league. To pin it on him is madness.
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its not the way I remember it and on checking his stats there not great

He had 5 goals in 33 games compared to 20 in 43 games the season before that’s a large drop off like I say it may just be my memory playing tricks on me but I recall the way his and gazza form droppped off that season played a large part in our poor form. I know it’s only stats which don’t cover multiple intangibles but it does allow a basis to open a debate that he phoned it in.

Just to be clear though there is no way he was responsible alone for the teams poorer form but nor should he be excused from it and just for clarification I actually think he was the best foreign player ever for us but perhaps that’s another debate

 
EKblue said:
its not the way I remember it and on checking his stats there not great

He had 5 goals in 33 games compared to 20 in 43 games the season before that’s a large drop off like I say it may just be my memory playing tricks on me but I recall the way his and gazza form droppped off that season played a large part in our poor form. I know it’s only stats which don’t cover multiple intangibles but it does allow a basis to open a debate that he phoned it in.

Just to be clear though there is no way he was responsible alone for the teams poorer form but nor should he be excused from it and just for clarification I actually think he was the best foreign player ever for us but perhaps that’s another debate

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His NIAR season was just sensational. You dont get many wide players scoring 20 goals a season and certainly didnt in the 90s.

He was never a goal scorer. NIAR is the outlier.

The amount of assists he has in the clips of games you see on The Rangers Archives remarkable. I'd love to see those stats rather than must goals per game

I'd wager if we had modern stats to look back on like distance run and completed passes, he'd show to he streets ahead.

Gazza certainly didnt kick his arse for 4 months before he was sold. Dont think you can level the same criticism as Laudrup.
 
Quite a few disrespectful comments towards Davie on this thread, a lot of nonsense posted too.

Both were incredible footballers, Cooper was one of the greatest to ever pull on our jersey.

I was lucky enough to see both.
 
fergie1959 said:
Laudrup better than Cooper?! Must be lots of younger people who never saw Davie in his prime! Worst vote ever on FF. Shameful from this forum. Never been so disgusted since I joined Follow Follow many moons ago. Laudrup was surrounded with great players. Davie had to play beside several donkeys. Best player ever to grace Ibrox and a real supporter to boot. Bedtime for me.
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Which is nonsense. Cooper lost the plot under Greig, lost his fitness and lost his place. I was at Ibrox when Cooper was getting murdered from the support -did you have ear muffs on?

Davie Cooper on his day was sublime but Laudrup was vastly superior in consistency and effectiveness.
 
Gringo said:
Quite a few disrespectful comments towards Davie on this thread, a lot of nonsense posted too.

Both were incredible footballers, Cooper was one of the greatest to ever pull on our jersey.

I was lucky enough to see both.
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There's no doubting the ability of Davie Cooper.

There has been for a long time now however a tendency to forget a prolonged drop in form and popularity and yes before you start his ability meant a fair % of the support stuck by him but many didn't. And the manager at the time certainly didn't.
 
I don’t like the question. While they both played on the wing, I will always maintain if Cooper was playing in this era he’d play centrally in advanced midfield. His true genius (and he was) was his vision. He could thread a pass, that no other player on the pitch could see, through the eye of a needle. He could also beat a man with a drop of the shoulder as could Laudrup. Laudrup had the pace to then get away and in on goal, whereas Cooper would pass or cross it.
 
If Davie Copper has moved abroad or played with top quality players for longer he would have been absolute World Class.
Laudrup resurrected his career with us and his class was clear to see as was his love of playing football and winning games.
I’m luck to have witnessed them both play and due to Cooper being Scottish and. Rangers supporter, I’ll always hold him in higher regard even if Laudrup nicks it with overall ability.
 
Mate sorry to piss on your thread but it's a no contest, Davie Cooper was and still is one of my favourite ever players to pull on a Rangers strip I loved the guy part of my fav ever Rangers Team and was at the time I thought the best player I had ever seen playing for my team but sorry to say that Laudrup was on a different level just my opinion of course
 
DylanGer said:
There's no doubting the ability of Davie Cooper.

There has been for a long time now however a tendency to forget a prolonged drop in form and popularity and yes before you start his ability meant a fair % of the support stuck by him but many didn't. And the manager at the time certainly didn't.
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Cooper played in some dreadful Rangers teams at a very difficult time for the club, a drop in form was understandable, when Souness arrived and better players arrived, Cooper was a regular and a standout.
 
I saw both, and loved them both, but if push came to shove, I would pick Laudrup, mainly because he was more consistent, but I also take the point that the quality of the other players are a factor as well.
 
Ardoyne RSC said:
I saw both, and loved them both, but if push came to shove, I would pick Laudrup, mainly because he was more consistent, but I also take the point that the quality of the other players are a factor as well.
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Laudrup was equipped to show up SPL players with his pace and physique as well as great skill. Cooper couldn’t run from the half way line like Laudrup could. That said, if each had a go at playing with and against the best players in the world (with equal pace and power to Laudrup’s) and it was a tight nil-nil, I’d still fancy it would be Cooper who would come up with the dream pass to break the deadlock. So it’s not a like for like comparison.
 
Oduwa said:
The guy is a huge Cooper fan, we all were but not preferring him seems to be disrespectful.
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Not so. Laudrup could not do some of the things Cooper could do with a ball. So saying he was Cooper with pace (“simples”) seems to me off hand, dismissive and disrespectful to Cooper. I loved Laudrup btw, fabulous player.
 
Oduwa said:
The guy is a huge Cooper fan, we all were but not preferring him seems to be disrespectful.
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Both were geniuses with a ball and I saw them both, I only mean if I only had one place left in that position Laudrup would get it on pace alone. Bobby Tait said BL got fouled on the halfway circle but his pace took him into the box, close enough a penalty
 
ThorntonMM said:
When he wanted to be.
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Bit of a daft statement bud, he was the most naturally gifted Scottish player of that generation, for the most part playing in a poor Rangers side, no player could have shone in every game beside the players that he played with. It's not rocket science to see why he flourished under Souness when he was supported by better quality players.
 
Cooper was my hero growing up but Laudrup was head and shoulders above Cooper .

It pains me to say but as good as Cooper was , he would be further down the list as "greatest/most skillfull Rangers player ever" than some would admit .
 
both were fantastic but I watched Rangers teams with Davie Cooper in them and he really did carry us on occasions a fantastic player when on his game but he wasn't called moody blue for nothing
 
CooperOnTheWing said:
Not so. Laudrup could not do some of the things Cooper could do with a ball. So saying he was Cooper with pace (“simples”) seems to me off hand, dismissive and disrespectful to Cooper. I loved Laudrup btw, fabulous player.
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It’s hardly disrespectful. Laudrup was two footed and lightning quick, that’s just how it is, and it’s two significant attributes that give him an advantage over Coop.
 
Klos 1 said:
Think Laudrup was the Better player but Coop was my hero growing up. So for reason alone Coop would always gets my vote.
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Ditto. Could always have walked away, move down South or gone Abroad but stayed at the Club he loved and gave us Hope in barren times.
 
Think I’ll abstain and just be thankful I seen these two footballing geniuses week in week out. Cooper’s display one night against Tampere from Finland was just outrageous. The Skol Cup memories. His ability when in the mood was natural talent. As many have said re Laudrup, just a Rolls Royce player. Had it all.

Didn’t know how lucky I was watching these guys until the banter years came.
 
Cooper was my hero and still is
Laudrup was a magnificent footballer as was Cooper
I’ll leave it at that
 
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