Manchester United suffered a crushing defeat in the Europa League final on Wednesday night.The Red Devils were presented with a massive opportunity to end their silverware drought under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer when they lined up against Villarreal at the Polsat Plus Arena Gdańsk.However, contrary to the opinion of some, their Spanish opponents weren't simply going to roll over and die, especially when they had a Europa League specialist in the technical area.

Europa League final defeat

And it quickly became apparent that United were in for a tough evening when Unai Emery's men took the lead in the opening 45 minutes through Gerard Moreno's 30th goal of the campaign.

Granted, Solskjaer's side were able to strike back courtesy of a poacher's finish by Edinson Cavani, but the Premier League outfit were unable to wrestle control away from 'The Yellow Submarine'.

And with the game eventually turning into a drab affair that motioned through extra time and all the way to penalties, the keys to victory were ripped from United's hand and deposited in a lottery.

Jadon Sancho to Man Utd CLOSE (Football Terrace)

Man Utd labour to penalties

Sadly for the Red Devils, their number didn't come up with the shootout eventually dragging all the way to the goalkeepers as David de Gea put the trophy in Villarreal hands with a tepid miss.

However, what annoyed the Old Trafford faithful ten times more than De Gea bungling a penalty was the fact that their side had allowed the game to even get to that point in the first place.

Besides, for a team that has played glorious football at times this year, it was borderline demoralising to see United looking so laboured in their build-up play for great swathes of the final.

p1f6rg2ppabtu14smu1g14amsjcj.jpg

United's miserable football

And nothing could sum that up better than a clip of United's passing from Twitter user @UtdDavidd that is so miserable that it's gone viral, amassing more than 1,000 retweets and 'likes'.

The head-scratching 24 second video shows Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelof passing the ball between themselves to the point of tedium, which - trust me - is more entertaining than you'd think. Check it out:

And let's just say that more than a few United fans were, well, a little hacked off with the damning evidence of their dour football. Check out some of the reaction down below:

p1f6rh60lpifk1gce1r71e6r10i6q.jpg
p1f6rh6ie11v1r1lf754f1bcvj8cs.jpg
p1f6rh74qsmk710ci1ihkuv2q9du.jpg
p1f6rh7sdf1s6r1r6qubr49npkb10.jpg
p1f6rh8b2115qi1kq91aprp4govc12.jpg

GIVEMESPORT's Kobe Tong says

It's fair to say this wasn't United best's day at the office.

While, yes, it's easy to take clips out of context and smudge them down into a TikTok format like we can see here, make no mistake that the footage was indicative of United's football all night long.

And it's worth disclaiming here that Bailly and Lindelof weren't necessarily the problem despite the fact the clip would have you believe that they simply had no interest in playing progressively.

p1f6rg3ioh6tj17t5vcl1k7d9ghl.jpg

Transfer News Live: Manchester United Plotting Summer Swoop for Atletico Madrid Keeper Jan Oblak

There were plenty of examples in Gdansk where United's midfield and forwards were pushed so far up the pitch that passing between the defence and central areas was incredibly difficult.

As such, one can only assume that Lindelof and Bailly were only playing the ball so metronomically because there wasn't an obvious option further forward, though it's impossible to be certain.

Obviously, the counterargument to that is Lindelof and Bailly should be comfortable enough playing longer, diagonal balls and we've certainly seen plenty of instances from the former this season.

p1f6rg6oltgrt7qka0m1p6a1kjkn.jpg

But perhaps this was yet another way in which United missed Harry Maguire on Wednesday night because whatever was wrong with their football, it's clear that something wasn't working right.