I do not see Lionel Scaloni, the Argentine coach, pulling any tricks. It is basically going to be the strategy and tactics they used during their match with Croatia. These are two formidable teams, and I think that the Argentine coach is going to have five men in the defence. Messi is going to play against his teammate Mamaby, and both are excellent players and talented forwards. The way I see it, France will win the World Cup and be the third team to ever win it back-to-back.
Argentina haven't used a system with five defenders even for once since the beginning of this year. It might be a really big risk to take by doing this in a critical match for themselves. They have mostly used a formation like 4-3-3 Attacking so far. They tried new things against Netherlands (3-1-4-2) and Croatia (4-4-2 double 6) as well. Croatia had a solid defense as you know but this formation against them worked really well. This is making me wondering if they would use the formation against France as well.
Because France are another team which have a really strong defense line. As for Argentina defense they have no other choice than being extra careful here. Because even playing with 5 defenders might not be a certain solution.
But Messi will face a much more solid defense this time of course. His quickness level might not be good enough against France defenders. In this case he would play passing focused of course.
