Friedel hails defensive effort

Aston Villa keeper Brad Friedel has praised the Villa back-four and believes the whole team contribute defensively.

Friedel has kept 11 clean sheets so far this season, with only Chelsea's Petr Cech level with the American shot-stopper in keeping the opposition at bay.

However, Friedel was quick to share the praise with his Villa team-mates and insisted the club's impressive defensive record was down to the whole side.

He said: "Clean sheets are collective, it's not down to goalkeepers, it's collective defending.

"Just look at the amount of times in the first half at Tottenham that we stopped service at source.

"We've got people like John Carew, Emile Heskey and Gabby Agbonlahor helping to do that and it sometimes goes unnoticed at times during the game.

"But myself and the back four, we definitely take notice because it's one less time you have to deal with 6ft 9in Peter Crouch and one less time you have Jermain Defoe getting the second ball off him.

"We appreciate it when strikers and midfielders stop it at source and we have something instilled in our team where everybody is willing to do that."