Louis van Gaal kept his cards close to his chest as his Holland side prepares to take on Argentina on Friday evening, after he was asked how he plans to stop his opponents' talisman Lionel Messi.
With the build-up close to coming to a head for the heavyweight quarterfinal meeting at the Lusail Stadium, the talk has once again turned to keeping Messi quiet, as it has done for the majority of his stellar career.
But Van Gaal was not to be pressed on the matter, claiming it would be 'stupid' of him to let slip his plans before the game, which takes place at 7pm.
When asked how he intends to suppress the mercurial Messi on Friday evening, Van Gaal was initially reticent before downplaying the difficulty of doing do.
'We're not going to reveal any plans to you - it would be pretty stupid of us to do so.' he said, rebuking any attempts for a closer insight to his intentions.
'But it's not that difficult to come up with an answer as to how to stop him. You might want to block and close the passing lines. I can't see this creating too much of a hoo-ha.'
Van Gaal may have been dismissive of the importance of shutting Messi down, but he was not fooling opposite number Lionel Scaloni, who claimed his Argentina side were used to their opponents targeting the PSG star.
The seven-time Ballon d'Or winner has long been a thorn in the side of most managers at both club and international level, and as yet very few have come up with an effective plan to subdue the former Barcelona skipper.
'We'll see what happens with Lionel tomorrow,' he began. 'We're used to our opponents coming up with something different. We don't want to jump to foregone conclusions.
'We might come up with a few tactical differences of our own. We have certain nuances.
'We can do something different to hurt them. And if they decide to man-mark Lionel, we'll keep it in mind, too.'
Messi has naturally starred for his side in Qatar, with three goals and an assist at the World Cup putting him joint second behind club team-mate Kylian Mbappe on five in the race for the golden boot.
But Van Gaal has an ace of his own up his sleeve in the form of Cody Gakpo - who has been linked heavily with a move to Manchester United - with three goals to his name as well.
However, for Brighton's Alexis Mac Allister, there is only one contender for the player of the tournament so far, and he is not looking too far afield.
'I should say Messi,' said the Argentine, perhaps unsurprisingly. 'He’s been doing unbelievable stuff, both in training and in matches. He’s feeling fine, he’s happy - and that can only be good for us.'
