Tim Sherwood remained upbeat on Friday after Aston Villa's 20th consecutive home game without a win against Manchester United.
The 1-0 setback equalled the longest winless run at home against a single opponent in English league history.
Adnan Januzaj's first-half goal proved to be the difference, but Sherwood said he was "not too disheartened."
"I didn't think there was too much in the game. The boys gave everything for the cause but we didn't carry enough attacking threat," he said.
"There's a lot of things to improve on. I'm not too disheartened. We'll be OK.
"I don't take winning on Saturday [against Bournemouth] out of proportion and I don't think losing to Manchester United, with a couple of World Cup winners, is going to destroy my confidence either.
"The attacking force wasn't there tonight, it may be down to personnel, we're missing [Carles] Gil, [Jack] Grealish and Adama [Traore] who might give us a little cutting edge.
"It takes time, we expected that but what they do give me is everything. They try to take instruction on, it's not always perfect but they will improve."
Information from Press Association was used in this report.