Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal says his side's impressive improvement over the last few weeks is all down to his football philosophy.
The Red Devils won seven of their last nine games in the Premier League and will be looking for more of the same when they face Stoke City in Thursday's early kick-off.
"I think everyone can see that we are improving every week in spite of a lot of injuries, and that's because of the philosophy," van Gaal told reporters on Tuesday.
"I think the players understand the philosophy, and that's why we are improving, but we can improve more when we have all the players available.
And according to the Dutchman, it will not be long before all injured players will be back in the squad.
"There are players coming back, we have seen the first signs of that in the last two games with Rafael, Chris Smalling and Luke Shaw," van Gaal added.
"They don't have any match rhythm and that's my problem, it's the case with a few players. We played three or four games in the space of a week, so we need these players now more than ever. It's now difficult for me to select the team.
"[Ander] Herrera trained today for the first time with us but, yes, they don't have match rhythm.
"[Adnan] Januzaj has also trained two training sessions with us, but he was ill and you have to recover from your illness, not from your tiredness. Maybe it's worse to recover from illness."
