Steve McClaren's England suffered a 1-0 defeat against Spain at Old Trafford.
Jermain Defoe replaced Shaun Wright Phillips in the 70th minute but the Tottenham striker didn't get a single chance to rescue a result.
McClaren said: "It's very difficult in a friendly like this when you have to make changes and you have to look at different ways of fitting people in because it's difficult to get cohesion and we struggled with that.
"But I was looking at individuals to see if people can break into the squad and I think Ben Foster did well, Rio was his usual, Jonathan Woodgate and Rio were very good at the back. I was pleased with Kieron Dyer's performance. I thought he never stopped running and tried to make things happen. I was pleased with certain aspects."
Steven Gerrard said: "It wasn't what we wanted because we were looking for a win and a confidence boost for the two qualifiers. We'll be a lot stronger in a month's time when we come up against Israel and Andorra so we can get the six points we're after."
All the pre-match hype had centred on the frosty reception expected for Joey Barton, who won his first ever cap.
Rio Ferdinand said: "There's a fantastic ambience in the squad, everyone gets along, and as the manager has said he's trying to get a club mentality with England and I'm sure that's the case at the moment."
The Under-21s drew 2-2 against Spain at Derby County's Pride Park after they trailed by two goals at half-time.
Stuart Pearce, who was taking charge for the first, and probably final time before the summer's European Championships, said: "In the second half they came out and said ‘we, as a group of players, are going to go out and do something about this'. And they took their chances and created more opportunities."
"One thing that we know is the tough times in football will help you more so than thinking that going into the Championship will be a cake walk. You've got to bear in mind that in our group is Italy who knocked this mob out.
"At half time I said to the players that possibly the bloody nose, in footballing terms, that we had in the first half will stand us in good stead come the tournament this summer."
Manchester United's Kieran Richardson replaced Tom Huddlestone in between David Nugent and substitute Leroy Lita scoring England's goals.
Source: The FA.com/TottenhamHotspur.com