Despite high-profile performances from Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe in Qatar, Argentina and France can pose threats all over the pitch, so stopping the superstars is only one battle away in Sunday’s World Cup final battle.
In the opening group games, Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele were both raiding wide, operating almost as old-fashioned wingers, with Olivier Giroud playing a traditional centre-forward role and Antoine Griezmann given license to roam .
This is still perhaps Didier Deschamps’ model of choice, but as he found in the knockout stages, better defenses were able to constrict the wide men to some extent, forcing them to drop inside and deep for possession.
Argentina have switched between three central defenders and a flat back four during the tournament and coach Lionel Scaloni is expected to stick with the latter on Sunday.
England doubled their team whenever Mbappe picked up the ball and Argentina will probably try to do the same through Nahuel Molina and Rodrigo de Paul.
As England and Croatia found to their cost, however, putting resources in one area creates space elsewhere and there has been no one in the tournament to find and use it better than Griezmann.
Drifting wide but deeper than Giroud, he asks questions that central defenders do not like – go out and meet him or stay and wait for him?
The problem with the latter option is that he often does not move forward, instead pinging in crosses and long passes or bringing an upfront midfielder into play, as he did when set up.
