Louis van Gaal feels it could be more difficult for Manchester United to score intoday's match against Aston Villa than in next weekend's derby clash with Manchester City.

The Dutchman expects Tim Sherwood’s side to sit back and play on the counter-attack at Old Trafford, which he believes will make them a tough proposition.

United’s last three games have been against teams who were more inclined to play expansive, attacking football – Arsenal in the FA Cup, followed by Tottenham and Liverpool in the league.

"Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool wanted to attack but now we play Aston Villa," said van Gaal at his pre-match press conference.

"They shall organise themselves much more than Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool so it’s again a challenge to confirm that we can disorganise Aston Villa. Against a defensive team it’s much more difficult to score than against, for example, Manchester City which is also an attacking team. But Chelsea is [another] more organised team so that is more difficult.”

United go into this weekend’s clash in good spirits after responding to the disappointing cup defeat to Arsenal with arguably the team’s two best performances of the season, to dispose of Spurs and Liverpool. Van Gaal was, of course, very pleased with those victories but he isn’t getting carried away by his side’s strong display at Anfield.

"I see only the step that we have made in the process because Tottenham was the first match but we have also played against Arsenal and maybe you remember the game against Arsenal, we were the better team," the manager stated.

"We had sixty per cent ball possession, we created much more chances than Arsenal and they scored because of a back pass from Valencia. Against individual errors, you cannot fight as a team.