During his pre-match press conference ahead of Manchester United’s match against Aston Villa, manager Louis van Gaal revealed that midfielder Angel di Maria returned to training earlier this week and is in contention for the 18-man squad on Saturday. Although the United boss tempered his statement by reminding the gathering that one week of training is not enough for the Argentine to regain full match fitness.

Di Maria has not featured for United since he was substituted very early on during a match against Hull City in late November.

Van Gaal went on to tell reporters that striker Radamel Falcao has been training well and hinted that the Colombian could be in-line for a start against the Villains.

“Angel [di Maria] has trained this week with us,” Van Gaal said. “It’s always dependable on how I have to compare with other players because he’s not match-fit after one week. What I’ve said about [Robin] van Persie and Falcao, I say also for Di Maria – it is no different.”

“It is a procedure and he has to follow the procedure. Maybe I shall select him for the bench, or maybe not. I have to make my decision because we have one session to go.”

The manager was then asked about the chances of Radamel Falcao being named to the starting eleven. The Colombian international gave an interview this week expressing his desire to contribute to the club and remain at Old Trafford beyond his current loan deal from Monaco.

As usual, Van Gaal would not show his hand to the media regarding Falcao’s involvement in the match day squad.

“He shows fitness in training sessions, so maybe I shall select him for the bench or maybe I shall select him for the [starting] line-up. Wait and see.”

Van Gaal then informed the gathering that his squad was slowly returning to 100 percent, but midfielder Marouane Fellani will miss Saturday’s trip to Villa Park due to an illness.

“Twenty-eight players in the squad and twenty-two to put in the line-up, and that is big news,” the Dutchman said.

The United manager then went on to comment on his squad’s recent form which has seen them win six straight matches and catapult the side into third place in the Premier League.

While Van Gaal is pleased with the results, he still sees plenty of room for improvement in the team’s overall play.

“Okay, the results are very good, but we can improve the performances of the team. I don’t think it was a great surprise that we won against Liverpool, neither for the players. The game against Hull City was a good game. We dominated 90 minutes and I want to see more games like that. Now, there are too few games that we are dominating for 90 minutes. We have to wait and see.”

“When you win six times in a row the confidence is rising, but I’m still looking for a game that is more close to the perfect game than we have given until now.”

When quizzed further if the results should be the most important things, Van Gaal responded: “Of course, those are the main, important thing. I speak with Sir Alex Ferguson and he says, ‘No problem, you have won!’ but for me, the performance is also very important.”

“When you perform well, you win more and that’s what I want to show the fans. The players want to show that. The guarantee of wins is much bigger when we perform better.”

Programming note: Aston Villa vs Manchester United will be shown LIVE on NBC Sports Network on Saturday morning at 10:00am EST.