Manchester City goalkeeper Zac Steffen believes the United States men's national team lost their identity during a disastrous World Cup qualifying campaign.

The American's missed out on qualification for the World Cup after failing to beat Trinidad and Tobago.

And Steffen, who is on-loan with Fortuna Dusseldorf, thinks his national side must rediscover their identity.

"We don't have an identity right now," Steffen told ESPN. "We're very young and inexperienced and immature in the international soccer world right now. We're trying to find our feet, we're trying to find leadership, we're trying to find our playing style."

He added: "I wasn't happy with how we just pushed off the head coach [hiring] and all that stuff. I know it's not easy, but 13 months? That's way too long. It just makes no sense why to have that interim.

"For us players, we didn't like it because we'd just go out there and have fun, work hard, compete. We didn't really have a system. We didn't have very many details or directions."