They will gain approval for van Gaal who, in turn, will be satisfied the man he brought in from the cold - Adnan Januzaj - bagged the deflected goal at Villa Park.
Villa manager Tim Sherwood described it as "Friday nights under the lights" but those caught in the infernal M6 motorway traffic might have thought that, although there was rhyme, there was little reason to the timing of the match.
This was a one-off, because of policing issues on Saturday, but from next season, Friday night matches will be factored in for good.
It had a different feel to usual fixtures, partly because both sides were so different, with the churn of players at United having been as extensive as Aston Villa's.
No one quite knew what to expect and no one really expected van Gaal to reintroduce Januzaj. The Belgian made his first start for six months having previously been treated lukewarmly by the manager.
The 20-year-old was reassured this week that he had a future at United, dashing the hopes of Sunderland among others of signing him, and there was proof of that as he was selected to play the No 10 role - his favoured position - as van Gaal rejigged his line-up again.
The selection paid a dividend quickly. Januzaj's goal came midway through the first half and was smartly constructed down the United left with Memphis Depay, Luke Shaw and Juan Mata involved, before the Spaniard slid the ball cleverly through to pick out Januzaj's darting run into the penalty area.
Villa looked vulnerable but there was a disconnect between Wayne Rooney and those behind while van Gaal's tactics looked merely functional.
"I think we have played better than last week, certainly in the first 25 minutes," van Gaal said. "But after we scored the goal, we were running out of the game. We had a lot of unnecessary ball losses. I'm very pleased, because you can't get more points than six."
It's understandable, given it took United until November 22 to record their first away win last season.
