England Under-18s squad to face South Korea near Seoul in June

Neil Dewsnip has named an 18-man squad for the trip to bring the campaign to a close for the Young Lions.

The nations will meet at the Icheon City Stadium, just outside of the capital Seoul, with two fixtures scheduled for Friday 3 June and Sunday 5 June.

Having played the Netherlands, Austria and Republic of Ireland this season, Dewsnip now wants his squad to sample non-European opposition before they aim to step-up to Under-19s football next term.

And with England hoping to qualify for the U20 World Cup, held in South Korea next summer, when the U19s travel to their own Euro Finals in July, these fixtures give some of the players who could be in contention for a place in the squad an early experience.

Dewsnip’s group contains a number of the players who featured in the U18s’ previous fixtures this term, which has seen the Young Lions unbeaten in four games.

And he believes these games will round off the campaign with their toughest test yet.

“We’ve spoken about giving the players a really good, all-round education across their whole England pathway from U15s up to the first team, which would involve European, American, African and in this case, Asian opposition,” said Dewsnip.

The U18s started their season with a draw and a 2-0 victory over the Netherlands last September

“So we’re taking the boys to Asia as part of the England DNA philosophy and it’ll be a different style and a different culture for them so our players have to learn to deal with it in the hope that one day they’ll be doing it for the first team.

“That’s why we feel it’s worthwhile going so far on this occasion.”

The idea to pit his side against the Koreans came after a match at last year’s U17 World Cup in Chile, when the nations met in their final group game.

That game ended in a draw, but it was the lessons learned from that which Dewsnip wants to put his squad through again next month.

“We came across them at the U17 World Cup in Chile last year and we drew 0-0 and found it very difficult to break them down,” he added.

“They were very structured and disciplined and very hard working, and it was a real challenge for us.

“They were quite happy to let us have a lot of the ball and dominate possession but they were a real threat on the counter attack.”

The Squad

Goalkeepers: Alfie Whiteman (Tottenham Hotspur), Aaron Ramsdale (Sheffield United)

Defenders: Danny Collinge (Stuttgart), Josh Grant (Chelsea)**, Ro-Shaun Williams (Manchester United), Easah Suliman (Aston Villa), Hayden Coulson (Middlesbrough), Jay DaSilva (Chelsea)

Midfielders: Adetayo Edun (Fulham), Tom Davies (Everton), Sam Field (West Bromwich Albion)*, Antony Evans (Everton), Nathan Holland (Everton)

Forwards: Marcus Edwards (Tottenham Hotspur), Rushian Hepburn Murphy (Aston Villa), Andre Green (Aston Villa), Lukas Nmecha (Manchester City), Isaac Buckley-Ricketts (Manchester City).

* replaced Herbie Kane (Liverpool)
** replaced Cameron Humphreys (Manchester City)