Boss Tim Sherwood refused to condemn Aston Villa after they extended their winless streak at home to Manchester United.
Villa have not beaten United at home in the league for 20 years after Adnan Januzaj struck to seal a 1-0 Barclays Premier League win for the visitors on Friday.
The hosts struggled to threaten United with only Gabriel Agbonlahor’s weak header and Jordan Ayew’s off-target drive threatening to trouble Sergio Romero in the United goal.
Sherwood has signed 10 new players this summer and gave Micah Richards, Jordan Amavi, Jordan Veretout, Idrissa Gueye, Rudy Gestede and Ayew their home debuts.
And the manager insisted his new-look squad needs to settle before they can be judged fully.
He said: “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.
“There’s a lot of things to improve on. I’m not too disheartened. We’ll be okay. I don’t take winning on Saturday 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 is give me is everything. They try to take instruction on, it’s not always perfect but they will improve.”
Januzaj struck after 29 minutes to score his first goal since April 2014 and hand United back-to-back victories following their opening day win over Tottenham.
The 20-year-old has been linked with a loan move from Old Trafford this season and boss Louis van Gaal refused to confirm if the midfielder would stay.
He said: “You have to wait until we have closed the transfer period. That’s my benefit of this period.
“I am pleased with the goal because it was a wonderful goal but you have to do more than scoring a goal and that was less good than the goal.
“I said he shall play 60 minutes which I did with Michael Carrick. It was already decided before the game.”
And van Gaal was delighted with their second narrow win to maintain their 100 per cent record.
“I’m very pleased because you cannot get more points than six,” he added.