United remain 10 points behind Premier League leaders Chelsea following the 3-1 win over Alan Pardew's men at Old Trafford on Boxing Day, with Van Gaal's side ultimately easing to victory.
Wayne Rooney, playing from a midfield role, scored twice for the hosts, with Robin van Persie netting the other as United recorded their seventh win from their last eight Premier League games.
Substitute Papiss Cisse converted a late penalty after Phil Jones had tripped Jack Colback and, although that proved to be nothing more than a consolation for Newcastle, Van Gaal feels his men are still doing a lot wrong.
He told BT Sport: "We make progress in every game, but we are also doing very bad things in every game.
"We have to improve that. But I am satisfied because we are dominating most of our games, not always winning, but that is coming."
Despite the 10-point gap behind leaders Chelsea, captain Rooney is by no means writing United off in the Premier League title race, claiming their chances rest upon recording positive results in the next few matches.
"There is a long way to go, we know that," he said. "We have chased leads down before and we have lost leads of a big number of points.
"Anything can happen, especially over the next week or two when there is a lot of games, and if we can come out of these games with the right results then we'll be in a good position."
