Pele: Brazil a team of individuals

Brazil legend Pele says the national team are a team of individuals after they began their World Cup qualification campaign with a 2-0 defeat to Chile.

The Selecao have suffered a fall from grace in recent years after their 7-1 defeat to Germany at World Cup 2014 was followed by a quarter-final exit at this summer's Copa America.

Pele dismissed suggestions the nation no longer had the same love for the game, but admitted the current side are not yet a tight unit.

"We have not lost passion for football. We have the best players for Brazil but unfortunately, we don't have time to prepare the team," Pele told reporters.

"Individual players are important but to have a good team you need to play together well as a team. That's the big problem. Individually we have the best players but as a team we've a lot of problems. 

"In my time the players used to belong to the clubs but today players are managed by their agents. Presently we have a lot of problems in different positions of the field."