Argentina coach Gerardo Martino has said Barcelona star Lionel Messi will play on the right wing against Croatia because otherwise they would have "almost a fourth No. 9."
The World Cup finalists face Croatia on Wednesday before meeting Portugal in another friendly six days later. Juventus star Carlos Tevez makes his international return, coming into a side already boasting Messi, Sergio Aguero and Gonzalo Higuain.
"We have decided that Messi has to play on the right wing otherwise we would have, given how they play in their teams, almost a fourth No. 9," Martino said.
"I also know Higuain doesn't play in the same way as Aguero does, or Tevez does.
"But at the end of the day in a system like ours, not everybody has to be a No. 9 nor have the qualities to move to the wing.
"As I said before, except in specific cases and certain moments of a match or certain moment of a decisive tournament, it will be pretty difficult to see all of them or most of them, at least at the beginning of a game."
Martino said he would also use the friendly games to see what he could get out of his fringe players prior to next year's Copa America.
"Actually, in these friendlies where we'll play two games, the idea will be to watch as many players as we can, from the beginning of the match or during the game, maybe building different lineups," he explained.
"We will follow this idea as we did in the last tour [of Asia]. And we will confirm the line-up after the training session."