San Sebastian, Messi's kryptonite
Historically Atocha, then normalized as Anoeta, now Reale Arena. The ground's name is not important for the Barcelona star, the only thing he cares about is scoring in it.
His numbers as a league visitor are not bad, four goals in ten games, but they are the least productive of a Messi accustomed to scoring an insane number of goals in every stadium he's ever set foot in.
If we take into account those stadiums where he has played at least eight times, both the Real Sociedad and Athletic are his lowest numbers. Even in the Bernabéu, with eleven, has been much more devastating.
In addition, the individual has gone hand in hand with the collective, since it has lost more times (five) than it has won (three).
It's a good time for Leo Messi to get even. The Argentine comes in very good shape. He celebrated his sixth ballon D'Or win with a hat trick against Mallorca and has reached his best moment of the course after the injury that had set him aside the beginning of the campaign and deprived him of making an appearance in the pre-season.
The Argentine's star current average is 1.2 goals per game in the league, so Imanol's team has an argument for and against when facing the nightmare that is to stop Messi on the pitch.