West Brom vs. Manchester United: Key Takeaways from Louis van Gaal's Presser

Louis van Gaal told reporters he was happy the injury problems following his squad during the start of the 2014-15 season are almost over in his pre-match presser on Friday, as the Manchester United boss looked ahead to his team's meeting with West Bromwich Albion.

As shared by the club's official Twitter feed, the Dutchman confirmed none of his stars returned from the international break with an injury:

The Red Devils are going into a difficult stretch of their schedule, with back-to-back matches against league-leaders Chelsea and defending champions Manchester City coming up. Van Gaal refused to look past Saturday's opponents, however, via Squawka:

The squad's fortunes have changed since a difficult start to the season. United currently sit fourth in the standings. According to the manager, confidence is the key for everyone involved:

The Red Devils have won back-to-back matches in the Premier League for the first time this season, but Van Gaal still sees plenty of room for improvement:

Via Metro's Chris Winterburn, the former manager of the Dutch national team gave one of the reporters a cheeky answer when he was asked about his performance so far:

West Brom have won their last two home fixtures, but Van Gaal refuses to read too much into that:

The Red Devils are slowly getting healthy again. Several of the big summer signings needed some time to adapt to life in the Premier League and Van Gaal's football philosophy.

The Dutchman isn't surprised it took this long for the results to start going their way:

Finally, via Winterburn, Van Gaal told reporters he wants his players to do a better job of closing matches they are leading, and he believes that's exactly what fans want to hear:

United have conceded 10 goals so far during the season, per WhoScored.com, more than any other club in the Premier League top six. Plenty of those have come late in fixtures the Red Devils should have easily won, and a lack of maturity in those situations has cost them.

Head-to-heads with Chelsea and City will give fans and pundits an idea of where the squad stands, less than two months after the summer transfer window.

While United looked much improved in the final week before the international break, even better performances will be needed against the very best the Premier League has to offer.

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