United States coach Jurgen Klinsmann omitted veteran striker Clint Dempsey from his squad for upcoming World Cup qualifying matches, saying he wanted to test younger attacking options as the road to Russia 2018 gets under way.

"At this point in time, I want to give the younger strikers a chance to prove themselves and this is a good stage to do it," Klinsmann said. "I communicated with Clint about it and it's all fine."

The United States face St Vincent & Grenadines and Trinidad & Tobago in the opening round of the CONCACAF region's World Cup qualifiers, matches Klinsmann's men will be expected to win comfortably before tougher assignments further down the line.

Klinsmann insisted however that he was not underestimating the Caribbean teams as he aims to shake off a disappointing run of results that have left his position under scrutiny.

The United States flopped in the Gold Cup on home soil in July and were also beaten by Mexico last month in a crunch playoff for a place in the 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia.

"With St Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago, they're two nations that are not taken lightly," Klinsmann said.

"They are good teams. T&T proved it in the previous Gold Cup. With St. Vincent and the Grenadines, we have a team that is an unknown, but we watch their previous games and make ourselves familiar with their players.

"At the end of the day you still don't really know what to expect, so it's going to be very interesting."

There were few surprises elsewhere in Klinsmann's squad, although he did include Germany-based defender Fabian Johnson.

Klinsmann kicked Johnson out of his squad for a friendly against Costa Rica last month following the US defeat to Mexico, and later complained about the Borussia Monchengladbach player's attitude.

"I had a very severe word with Fabian Johnson, and I sent him home," Klinsmann told reporters at the time.

The United States face St Vincent & the Grenadines on November 13 before traveling to Port of Spain to face Trinidad & Tobago four days later.

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Bill Hamid (D.C. United), Tim Howard (Everton)

Defenders: Ventura Alvarado (Club America), Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City), Geoff Cameron (Stoke City), Fabian Johnson (Borussia Monchengladbach), Matt Miazga (New York Red Bulls), Michael Orozco (Club Tijuana), Tim Ream (Fulham FC), Brek Shea (Orlando City SC)

Midfielders: Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Michael Bradley (Toronto FC), Mix Diskerud (New York City FC), Miguel Ibarra (Club Leon), Jermaine Jones (New England Revolution), Darlington Nagbe (Portland Timbers), DeAndre Yedlin (Sunderland)

Forwards: Jozy Altidore (Toronto FC), Alan Gordon (LA Galaxy), Jordan Morris (Stanford), Bobby Wood (Union Berlin), Gyasi Zardes (LA Galaxy)