James McAtee has made 10 Premier League appearances for Manchester City this season, scoring twice
Manager Lee Carsley said that England's Under-21s "have to experiment" after suffering a 5-3 defeat by France and finishing with 10 men.
With England having already qualified for the European Under-21 Championship, the Young Lions are now preparing for this summer's tournament in Slovenia.
Carsley returned to his U21 role after a spell as interim boss of the men's senior team and selected a front three of James McAtee, Harvey Elliott and Liam Delap, who all scored in the friendly in Lorient.
McAtee netted a second-minute opener but France were in front after seven minutes before Eintracht Frankfurt striker Hugo Ekitike completed a hat-trick, while Elliott also missed a penalty at 4-3 and Omari Hutchinson was sent off late on.
"This is our European Championship preparation," said Carsley. "It was important that we tried something different.
"We have to experiment. We have to try something and we're trying it against a top team as well. It's a good test for the players.
"I don't think it would have had any benefit coming over here and just playing the way that we always do."
McAtee opened the scoring from a corner but France levelled two minutes later as Quentin Merlin converted from Rayan Cherki's through-ball, and Ekitike latched on to another pass by Cherki to put France ahead.
England threatened an equaliser, with Jaden Philogene firing against a post, but Ekitike made it 3-1 as he tapped home after Tottenham's Wilson Odobert fired the ball across goal.
Elliott pulled a goal back two minutes later after McAtee nodded down a cross by Elliot Anderson.
After the break, Ekitike scored his third goal from another Odobert cross and Delap cut the deficit to 4-3 just after the hour mark, heading home after McAtee's dinked cross came back off the woodwork.
England earned a penalty two minutes later as Rico Lewis was tripped by Chrislain Matsima, but Liverpool's Elliott fired over from the spot.
Cherki then completed the scoring on 76 minutes, while England substitute Hutchinson hit a post before being shown a straight red card for a studs-up challenge.
"It's something that we need to look at - to concede five goals, and not great goals either," added Carsley.
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