Graham Arnold has urged his new-look Socceroos squad not to be too focused on Lionel Messi in their hotly-anticipated rematch with the superstar and his Argentina teammates.
Messi, set to join Major League Soccer (MLS) outfit Inter Miami, is the undisputed headline act of Thursday night's clash at the Workers' Stadium in Beijing.
The 35-year-old scored the opening goal of Argentina's 2-1 World Cup round of 16 win over the Socceroos after wriggling away from Keanu Baccus but Arnold was wary of the likes of Angel Di Maria and Alexis Mac Allister.
"(Messi is) obviously, a fantastic player. But we'll have a way to do what we did at the World Cup," Arnold told reporters on Wednesday.
"I felt that we did very, very well til about the 43rd minute on him. And we'll do the same again but it's not just about him.
"They've got some incredible players outside of him as well. So you can't just focus on that one player, but obviously, be extremely aware of him when he is in possession."
Arnold wanted his charges to be "brave" and take it up to Argentina in possession.
"But the focus needs to be on our own performance and if there's one thing that we could do better than what we didn't do in the last was in possession," he said.
"Keeping possession better and making sure that we're making them do some running and some chasing, and that we'll be in their faces for 90 minutes defensively."
A plethora of big names, including Craig Goodwin, Aziz Behich, Milos Degenek, Jackson Irvine and Aaron Mooy aren't available.
Left-back Jordan Bos will make his first international start while Aiden O'Neill will partner Baccus in midfield.
Central defender Alessandro Circati could debut off the bench, with Harry Souttar and Kye Rowles pencilled in to start.
With Goodwin (hip) sidelined, Marco Tilio and Garang Kuol away with the Olyroos and Awer Mabil left out, Arnold's wing options are somewhat limited, with a formation change likely.
"At the moment, my expectation is to go out there and win the game," Arnold said.
"You've got to have those expectations and deliver that belief to the players for those type of things to happen.
"But we will tinker with the system a little bit. Obviously, you can see by the squad selection that we've had some issues with wingers, not having a lot of wingers in camp but also selected.
"So we'll change things up a little bit and go out there and do what we did and what we've been respected for in the past and that is the Aussie DNA and we'll get out there and give it everything we've got."
