Gareth Southgate wants England to cut out the mistakes as he will never be satisfied with grinding out results.
Two weeks on from the end of Sam Allardyce's 67-day reign, interim manager Southgate led the Three Lions to Ljubljana for a match far tougher than the hosts' 67th position in the world rankings would suggest.
Slovenia pressed with intensity from the outset and regularly threatened to inflict England's first qualifying defeat in seven years, with only Joe Hart's virtuoso display and some good fortune securing a 0-0 draw.
Southgate's side looked cumbersome for large chunks and failed to muster a shot on target in the first half, with their mistakes in possession just as worrying.
"I don't want to be a team that grinds things out," the interim boss said afterwards, having only beaten Malta 2-0 on Saturday.
"I think we want the team to pass the ball and at times tonight I think they found that difficult on the surface. Both teams, there was lots of turnovers because of the pitch.
"And in asking them to play that way, there's a danger there will be mistakes and there were probably more of them tonight than we would want.
"I think what are my expectations of how much they can take on in five days or five training sessions? You know, I've got to be realistic about the impact we can have.
"But what I would say is they showed signs of trying to play the way we want to. They've played at times with some tactical discipline.
"I thought tonight the mistakes were a concern because you can't afford those sort of mistakes at this level.
"But it's difficult to judge how hard to go in when you've only had them for such a short period of time and a lot of them are as inexperienced as they are.
"I've got to balance setting the challenge right for them as the team, demanding as much as possible, but also being realistic about how quickly we can adapt to a style of play."
Adapting to a philosophy is one thing, freezing when the going gets tough is another.
Anxiety cost England as much as anything in the embarrassing Euro 2016 exit to Iceland, but Southgate was reluctant to say Tuesday's display showed any hangover from that.
"I'm not sure," he said. "I think qualifiers away from home have always been tense.
"When I was playing it was the same, they were always tight and very few you romped away with.
"When you start the halves as we did, that creates anxiety within team.
"First half we then got our composure and were in control of the ball and looked like we might create a bit more and had a couple of opportunities that we might have done better, s o it's very much a work in progress as far as I can see.
"In what's been an incredibly difficult 10 days in terms of not just the situation of taking over, but the number of withdrawals with injuries and all the other issues we've had to deal with, to get four points - we would have liked six, to have scored more goals and a bit more fluent with the ball - means we sit top of the qualifying group.
"That has to be the objective when we get through the game against Scotland as well."
Next month's Wembley clash with Gordon Strachan's men promises to be intriguing, so too the friendly with Spain that follows.
They are the kind of matches defence-minded midfielder like Eric Dier and Jordan Henderson look suited to, even if they under performed in Slovenia.
The latter captained his country after the former displaced Wayne Rooney in the starting line-up, although the 30-year-old made an impact in the final 17 minutes.
"Well, I think we felt it was a period in the game where there was a spell of pressure," Southgate said.
"We needed perhaps an experienced head in there to calm things down a bit and he did that.
"He had a good effort really early on and I thought as the game wore on we were the stronger team and looked we like pushing them back and maybe we could open them up.
"We tried to be positive with our changes to do that, but in the end we've run out of time."
Source: PA
