Average players that had the game of their lives vs Man Utd then disappeared back into obscurity

Irrational.

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Relatively unknown Lodi managed a cracking game against us as we were sent crashing out of the CL. I’m pretty sure we’ll never hear of him again. This has got me thinking - it seems to be quite a regular occurrence.

You have the likes of Brad Friedel who was an average keeper but would turn into an immovable object regularly against us, but you also have the players that just have the one-off game only to be never heard of or seen again. This thread is regarding the latter.

Michael Mifsud - scored two goals against us for Coventry and has never been seen again.

Choupo Moting - see above. I didn’t even realise he was in professional football until I saw his name on the subs bench for PSG.

Any others?
 

James Peril

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Annoys me that Brad Friedel is mentioned in threads like these. He was a great goalkeeper and could have done a good a job for every club on the planet, had a good record for saving penalties too if I am not mistaken. Except for when he moved to Villa, don’t think he saved a single one for them.
 

DWelbz19

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Opening example is a bit harsh. Lodi is only 23 and he has 15 caps for Brazil and won the league with Atletico last season.
 

JJ12

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Luke Matheson - 15 year old player for Rochdale

Think he signed for Wolves after that.
 

OnlyTwoDaSilvas

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Somen Tchoyi for West Brom. He had a couple of good games against us in his brief spell at WBA. Scored against us at Old Trafford, and had a game against us at the Hawthornes where he just terrorized us every time he had the ball. He was a big lad and we were just bouncing off him.
 
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Dennis Bailey QPR, scored a hat-trick at Old Trafford against Utd on New years day and was a media sensation for 3 days. Never did anything of note for the rest of his football career. i wouldn't be surprised if this was his only ever hat-trick
 

Natener

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Danny Murphy and that bald former Liverpool player now at Newcastle seem to have a vendetta against us.
 

Jippy

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Annoys me that Brad Friedel is mentioned in threads like these. He was a great goalkeeper and could have done a good a job for every club on the planet, had a good record for saving penalties too if I am not mistaken. Except for when he moved to Villa, don’t think he saved a single one for them.
Agreed. He didn't have the greatest time at Liverpool, but went on to develop into a world class keeper at Blackburn and for the US. Seemed a decent guy too.
 

Wednesday at Stoke

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Matty Longstaff. FFS that was a depressing evening.
Gaizka Mendieta. Ran us ragged when he played a season at Middlesbrough.
Steven Nzonzi, bullied our midfield in the "football heritage" game.
 

kthanksbye

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Maybe I'm remembering this badly but for a long time, any team that played 3 in midfield, one of their midfielders would look really good against us because they'd have lots of space as we always played a 442 or some variation of it in the PL.
 

largelyworried

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Matty Longstaff. FFS that was a depressing evening.
Gaizka Mendieta. Ran us ragged when he played a season at Middlesbrough.
Steven Nzonzi, bullied our midfield in the "football heritage" game.
The same guy who was made the UEFA best midfielder in Europe twice in a row?
 

Rozay

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David Bellion
Eric Djemba-Djemba
Gonzalo Rodriguez
 

RacingClub

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It probably doesn't count because he had periods of "success" but the first thought I had was the Kuyt hattrick vs United.

Worst hattrick by the worst player to ever score a hattrick vs United?
 

Big Ben Foster

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Grant Hanley. Scored a late winner for Blackburn at Old Trafford the season we lost the league to City on GD.
 

Oranges038

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For some reason.

Christopher Wreh and the 1998 Charity Shield sticks out. I might be wrong, but from memory he played well and scored that day, Arsenal won 3-0 and he basically did nothing before or after. The arrival of Henry and Suker probably didn't help either.

Also Afonso Alves, came to Boro from Holland where was banging them in, did f all, scored 2 against Utd. Did nothing much else and disappeared.
 

Siorac

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Afonso Alves for Middlesbrough. Scored 10 Premier League goals in two seasons, two of those in one game against one of our best ever defences.

Also, let me join in the laughing at the Mendieta shout: :lol:
 

iHicksy

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Danny Murphy - hates us so much (on record) that he would always have his only good game of the year vs us.
Shelvey (The Dark Lord)
Longstaff
Mark Noble
Agbonlahor
James Milner (although i quite rate him)
Troy Deeny
 

Devil’s Trident

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Oh quite a few, off the top of my head
Morten Gamst Pederson - always used to have great game against us
Steed Malbranque - looked like prime Zidane, everytime
Imre szabics - fecked off into nothingness after that CL game v Stuttgart where he looked like prime Sheva. I had a minor eye op. on the right eye , went against the advice and still decided to watch the match just to see the cnut scoring, with the left eye.
Other honourable mentions
Lee grant
Andrea dossena

Must a missing a few more
 

DannyCAFC

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Lodi is hardly unknown if you follow football in anyway whatsoever and calling Friedel an average keeper is extremely harsh.

Thread smacks of victim-mentality.
 
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Fellani used to be a nightmare when we played him. Then we signed him and he did clutch up a few times but for the most part he just didn’t fit in with our play.
 

r3idy

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Pick any half decent goal keeper from the likes of Villa / Burnley / WBA, Any shot seems to bounce off their face, tipped onto the bar, then out for a throw in. Always have a worldie against us, freaks the lot of em
 

RedStarUnited

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Michael Rickets - Scored and assisted in a Bolton win against us at OT back in 2001. He never scored more than 6 goals a season again for the rest of his career.
 

FrankDrebin

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Arnautovic usually produced a worldie against us for Stoke and more so for West Ham.

Fellani used to be a nightmare when we played him. Then we signed him and he did clutch up a few times but for the most part he just didn’t fit in with our play.
I'd argue he did fit in with the way we played, funnily enough more so for LVG and later Jose.

It was like Moyes was embarrassed to use him similarly to how he utilised him at Everton.
 

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Neil Sullivan for Wimbledon always played his best games against us.