David James insists that England "will get it right" before Fabio Capello's reign as head coach begins in earnest with the World Cup qualifiers next season.
James believes England are on a "learning curve" via a series of friendly matches over the next six months before they face Andorra in September.
Their latest warm-up game saw them lose 1-0 to France in Paris with James having given away the decisive penalty, scored by Franck Ribery, after he brought down Nicolas Anelka.
But the veteran Portsmouth goalkeeper insists there were plus points which can be built upon ahead of the next friendly against the United States at Wembley in late May.
James said: "You are playing one of the best sides in the world and the disappointment of losing has to to be put alongside the fact you are playing such a very good side and it is part of the learning curve.
"Fortunately this was a friendly and I said when Fabio Capello took over he has got a good opportunity because he is going to have so many friendlies in order to test things out.
"I am confident we will get it right before the qualifiers get underway. It was frustrating not getting anything out of the game but we will go away with a lot of positives."
James continued: "What did we learn from the game? The fact we had a lot of possession, the fact we were able to get balls into the box.
"Granted we were exposed a bit at the back a couple of times as you would expect when chasing the game.
"But they are one of the best teams in the world and, as long as we learn about holding lines, whether it is too high or too low or whatever is all part of the learning curve we have to take into qualification.
"The difficulty is being 1-0 down against a side so strong in defence. We watched the highlights of their game versus Spain and it was the 88th minute before Spain scored and they are a tough side.
"The high line we adopted is an aggressive line. If you look at the Russia and Croatia games earlier in the season, perhaps we've been guilty of dropping off so deep.
"It is frustrating losing but there are positives which I think everyone is going to improve with."
Midfielder Gareth Barry believes England will benefit from having a lengthier time together with Capello during the summer when they play the United States on May 28 and are expected to shortly confirm a meeting away to Trinidad and Tobago in early June.
"The manager is the one who is going to have to learn what we have improved upon from the Switzerland game last month," Barry said.
"He made a quick point after the game that he was reasonably happy. He said we had moved to the next step but he only had two days again to work with the team.
"We will look forward to the summer when we have the two games and a bit more time to work together. There has to be a lot of patience. The manager will know what he is doing. We are all in it together.
"In terms of confidence, I don't think it will be affected by Wednesdays result. France are a great team. We will look forward to meeting up in the summer."
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