United go to Liverpool tomorrow as underdogs, despite Liverpool having lost their past three games.
"Of course (confidence can be taken from the data)," De Ligt told The Telegraph. "But, in the end, it's all about winning. Data doesn't count. Statistics don't count.
"But obviously when you're not winning and you see that still you had a lot of chances and you just maybe missed the final touch to score a goal this gives confidence that we are actually playing quite OK. This gives us the belief that we can win a lot of games.
"We're improving as a team. In modern football even if you play a back four almost all teams play by building with three defenders. And we do often defend with four defenders.
"It's always easy to say 'system this, system that'. But, in the end, it's always adaptable in the game.
"There's no situation where the system is always the same in the game. In that way of being flexible and in the structure we have to find a way to get everything right and make everything happen."