Gareth Southgate saw positives in England’s 1-0 defeat against Italy at The San Siro Stadium.
The Three Lions have been relegated from their UEFA Nations League following the result.
But they still have one more match to play with long time rivals Germany visiting Wembley Stadium on Monday and England will be looking to end on a high.
Southgate said: “We had more possession, more shots, more shots on target. For large parts of the game we played very well.
“It’s a spell where ultimately results are going to be the thing that everyone reacts to but I thought there were a lot of positives for us as a team tonight.
“Lots of good individual performances. I personally thought the performance is a step in the right direction. I completely understand because of the result that is not going to be the reaction.
“It’s really difficult to pinpoint why we are not scoring. I think we are getting into the right areas. We had the moments where we would have the pass but we just didn’t deliver that final piece of quality tonight.
“I understand the reaction at the end because that’s the results we have had in this competition. It’s an understandable emotional reaction.
“There will be a huge amount of noise of course but that’s been created from the summer really. I totally understand that.
“The players in the dressing room know that this is a game they could well have won.”
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