Games away to Turkey and at home to Kosovo await England Under 21's with head coach Aidy Boothroyd still smarting from a disappointing showing at this summer's European Championships.
Criticisms were made both of Boothroyd and the attitude of some his squad with Gareth Southgate voicing a warning this week for any of the youngsters looking to become part of his senior squad that they needed to show 'humility' and not just assume England need to simply turn up to win as seemed to be the case during the Euro's.
“That’s a little bit down to their age," he said.
"They’ve got to recognise it and learn from it. But we play Kosovo in the second game here, they’re a good team and they’ve got some really good players and the pride of a new nation.
“We can’t underestimate that sort of game, they’re unbeaten in 12-15 matches, so we would be naive to go into that [thinking it would be easy].
“But, in fairness, I’ve had 30 years in football and those boys have had three, so they're not going to know all of those things."
Manchester United and Liverpool strike starlets Mason Greenwood and Rhian Brewster have been called up with Manchester City midfielder Phil Foden set to take on a key role over the qualifying campaign.