Manchester United’s Europa League defeat leaves Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in shadow of club’s history

This was the match that was supposed to be the start of something greater for Manchester United but instead has left more questions around the manager’s progress

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after accepting his runners-up medal (Reuters)

Football is rife for the nebulous concept of desire. That success might come to whoever wants it more. And in some aspects, that is true. Rarely does the game reward those who truly need it. But willing and fight can coax it into submission.

And as Villarreal dug deep, went right through their team for 11 successful penalties before keeping Manchester United to 10, who were the gods to argue. Both teams and both managers needed this. But the Yellow Submarine have their first major trophy and Unai Emery, a man ridiculed for the crime of trying to make Arsenal less Arsenal, has his fourth Europa League title and his stock closer to where it once was.

Then again, it was not the case that Manchester United or Ole Gunnar Solskjaer wanted this any less. In fact, you may argue they needed it more. For this was supposed to be the start of a new dawn. One that was as much about building a new United as it was slowly getting out of the shadow of the great sides that had made its recent iterations seem so underwhelming.

It is a shadow they have embraced as inspiration rather than a nuisance. Solskjaer’s 29 months at Old Trafford has been punctuated by references to Manchester United sides of old. The ones he knows well, with whom he garnered six Premier League titles, two FA Cups and, of course, that Champions League 22 years ago to the day.

Sure he’s hammed it up, as is the wont of any former player-turned-manage. From not parking in the manager’s designated parking spot at Carrington because it belonged to Sir Alex Ferguson, to evoking Sir Matt Busby, another leader woven into the red fabric of the club who was born on this day in 1909.

And as photos circulated of Sir Alex dining with United players, with Wayne Rooney present in the stands, the cynics might have wondered if he’d name Nostalgia as one of the two in front of the back four. Where better to cover for structural fallibilities?

Because that, too, had been a hallmark of Solskjaer’s Manchester United. Certainly not in the last portion of this season as Champions League qualification and second-place in the league were chalked up with ease. But is the reason they dropped down to the Europa League in the first place, why they were bested in the FA Cup by eventual winners Leicester City and, more broadly, why more than a hint of uncertainty remains around the Norwegian.

It was there in the first half as United dominated possession, advanced smartly at times to circumvent Villarreal’s low-block. And then, on 29 minutes, familiar disarray was exposed at the back through a training ground routine that pitted four yellow shirts against eight reds. The Spaniards utilised a shifting shape without the ball that encouraged United to play out to their much less effective right side and United had no effective counter.

However, being behind brought with it a familiarity. The kind you might get with an old, scratty jumper that should have been binned a while ago but carries sentiment, even purpose. And perhaps the half-time team talk might have been laced with Nigella levels of boozy cliche. But for a group of players who accrued 31 of their 74 league points from losing positions, whatever was said of what was required worked.

Greater intensity from the start of the second half may not have directly led to Edinson Cavani’s equaliser, though the rag-tag nature of Villarreal’s attempts to clear suggested a freneticism among them that wasn’t there at the start. It was a level maintained throughout the final 45 minutes of regular time.

That United’s three standouts for this turnaround were Cavani, Scott McTominay and Mason Greenwood was perhaps no coincidence in all this. Embraced, emboldened and encouraged by Solskjaer, respectively. Cavani has learned to love the club, McTominay opened up to the grass in front of him and Greenwood allowed to let his natural attacking gifts flourish, with the odd bit of advice around space and shooting through the legs.

Yet, the rough accompanying this smooth was clear to see. Bruno Fernandes was crowded and ineffectual, Paul Pogba central and thus out of sync in a system in which his best performances have come forward on the left. Neither problem was remedied despite the clear issues. Further up, Marcus Rashford, tired and devoid of his usual snap, was asking to be taken off. Instead, 10 minutes into extra time, Greenwood made way for Fred.

The flip side can be found in the other technical area. Whatever impediments there were for United were very deliberately set up by Unai Emery. A three-time Europa League winner was always going to have the upper hand on a night like this.

His superiority was in situational rather than competition awareness. What Villarreal lacked in firepower, they made up for with greater coordination of the space they owned and, ultimately, their players. That they grew into extra time, and arguably had the best of it, was a damning indictment on United’s overall work, but a credit to theirs. By the end, the team with the £645m valued squad were playing for penalties against the team worth almost a third of that.

Usually, a final this drab will be forgotten in a hurry. Yet the weight of the result against the odds, of Villarreal’s first European trophy and Emery’s fourth will carry these 120 minutes further than they deserve.

And with that will come more toil for Solskjaer. A match that was supposed to be the start of something greater was spurned through the same issues he has failed to address and will remain a stumbling block to the worthwhile progress that he has craved. United’s wait for a trophy goes on beyond four years as Solskjaer’s duck remains, and that shadow gets a little darker.