David De Gea believes Manchester United's injury-hit defence has made him a better goalkeeper this season, but is confident the team will begin to find consistency in the Premier League.
Louis van Gaal named his third formation in just 12 games as well as selecting midfielder Daley Blind and 19-year-old Paddy McNair as centre-backs in Saturday's 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace, with injuries and suspensions restricting his quest for consistency at Old Trafford.
De Gea admits it has been a tough start to the season given United's defensive concerns, though the Spain international -- who recorded his 50th clean sheet for United against the Eagles -- has backed the team's "world-class" attack to lead them on from sixth in the table.
Asked how he was dealing with different defensive selections every week, the 24-year-old told the club's official website: "It obviously makes things very difficult but that's football and it's my job to be able to adapt to different situations. As a goalkeeper it's important to form a good understanding with your back four and become familiar with each other's positions on the pitch.
"It's difficult when the players aren't there but you have to adapt and concentrate on your job. The experience has definitely helped me improve. My all-round performance has improved, but especially my concentration and being more tactically aware.
"I've really focused on my work in training to make sure I can produce the performances that are needed on the pitch. As a Manchester United player, you never stop learning and improving and you always have to strive to keep doing better."
Blind and McNair formed an unfamiliar centre-back pairing on Saturday with Chris Smalling suspended and injuries to Phil Jones, Jonny Evans and Marcos Rojo, though De Gea insists United are improving despite their problems.
"We would never use excuses but it's always going to be a big setback when we have injuries and some sendings-off as well," he continued. "It makes everyone's work that bit more difficult.
"In terms of maintaining a solid level of performance we need to have the consistency of players in the squad so hopefully everyone will be fit very soon. That will help us continue to improve.
"Having an overview of the whole pitch makes it easy for me to see that we are more compact and are making it very difficult for other teams to create opportunities to score.
"I feel we have some of the best strikers in the world playing for us -- we just need to take our chances and reap the rewards of the opportunities we're creating. Goals win games and winning games gets us points and we need to keep picking up more.
"Manchester United is a huge club and will always be there or thereabouts. In terms of the league table and the position we're in we are not far away. All we can do is work hard and try to keep improving and it's important that we completely concentrate on ourselves and not look too much at others."