Crazy game by Makoto he outtackled almost every player from Köln even Modeste has no Chance against him. The moderator was quite impressed my his play. Modeste 3-4 times runs full power against Makotos back and Modeste was flying completly away (it looks like Hasebe even didnt notice this,cause he was hulk or something) like Hasebe was 2 meter tall and 100 kilo heavy ^^. The last 3 game Hasebe was a nearless faultless center back,crazy things ^^
Hasebe got a lot of good press in Frankfurt the last couple weeks. Kovac likened his Libero (sweeper) role to the older Lothar Matthäus. The new 3 man defense has been instrumental to allow the wingers Oczipca and Chandler to push ahead, and Hasebe's runs forward as well as stable passing (best success ratio together Vallejo) allows the team to overcrowd the opponent's MF. Kovac supposedly motivated Hasi (cutesy way of saying rabbit in German) by saying he'll now become an Ikone (icon) like Tsuneyasu Miyamoto has been before. Hasebe is quoted still preferring the DMF role though. Frankfurt now has the best defensive record in 26 years.
Played the whole match at the now usual position again. A valuable 2-1 win in Bremen puts Eintracht at 7th in the table on goal difference, with 3rd to 7th (incl. BVB, Köln, Hoffenheim, Hertha) all having 21 points. And Bayern are only 3 points ahead on 2nd place.
He did well in a hard fought match. Ran the second most of his team (behind Gacinovic, third overall behind Götze) with 11.57km distance. That's over 1km more than usual!
Earned a penalty kick! (Alex Meier overhit it though, so Frankfurt is still down in Wolfsburg.) Btw. Hasebe is playing on the right wing (later right back) this time. Edit: Very unfortunate 0-1 loss. Hasebe has been very attacking minded today with plenty strong moves, one of them leading to the mentioned penalty call.
They continue to impress. 3-0 against Mainz and 90 minutes for Hasebe. Third place now !! Today he also signed new contract til summer 2018.
After his offensive weekend stint as RW/RB he went back to his more usual defensive position in the middle today, though less as a last man in the center of a three man CB, more ahead like a DMF. Second longest distance (nearly 11km) and most passes (61 with 88% accuracy) of his team.
Tied 15 th place of midfielders on Kickers rating now just before the christmas break. With a rating of 3,08. Robben is nr 1 with 2,50. Based on just this they would consider Hasebe near world class.
Eintracht has signed Mahato Takahashi from FSV Frankfurt (joined them in 2015). Midfielder, 174 cm. 19yo Unsure of his background http://www.eintracht-frankfurt.de/s.../ostrowski-und-takahashi-verstaerken-u19.html
Article about resurgence of libero-esque role in recent Bundesliga match. Hasebe is the main culprit here. http://spielverlagerung.de/2016/12/12/tes-bundesliga-check-die-fussballsprache-und-der-libero/