Southgate highlights England's successes after Germany defeat

Despite dropping the result Wednesday at the Westfalenstadion, England manager Gareth Southgate had plenty positive to say about the Three Lions' performance.

Lukas Podolski scored the lone goal in his final Germany appearance as Die Mannschaft topped England in an international friendly warmup, and even with the scoreline favouring Jogi Low's lot, Southgate liked what he saw.

"The players carried it really well and it suited the players. We don't like losing but it's important to learn something and try new things," Southgate told Gerard Brand from Sky Sports.

"We maximised the time we had and we have some very intelligent footballers in there. There were some great performances but we lost to a fairytale goal."

Related - Watch: Podolski marks final Germany cap with stunning screamer in victory

A fairytale goal fitting for the occasion, Southgate can look at two elements of Wednesday's performance as positives ahead of Saturday's World Cup qualifier with Lithuania at Wembley.

A back-three of Gary Cahill, Chris Smalling and debutant Michael Keane was near perfect, and Southgate got his tactics bang on, with Kyle Walker and Ryan Bertrand given free reign to push forward on the flanks.

Pair that with the fluidity of a front-three of Adam Lallana, Jamie Vardy and Dele Alli in that formation, and Sam Allardyce's successor may be onto something.

"I'm very pleased with the performance, lots of excellent individual performances. Most pleasing of all is the new tactical system we tried, the players carried it out very well and it suited the players we had.

"It suited the opposition we were playing against. We don't like losing, but in games like this it is important to learn something, and to try things, and I think we've done that, and I want the players to build on what they've done tonight."