Kicker magazine ranked the best centrebacks for the second half of the Bundesliga 2018/19 season, and Eintracht Frankfurt’s Makoto Hasebe was featured in the top 10 and assessed to be “world class”.

Hasebe, who was deployed in the middle of a three-men defence, is said to have resurrected the libero position made popular by Franz Beckenbauer and Lothar Matthaus. His performance in the early half of the campaign earned him the number one spot for the best centreback in the first half of the season.

However, he was upstaged in the second half by Mats Hummels, Jonathan Tah, Willi Orban and Niklas Sule, and fell behind to 5th. It coincided with Frankfurt’s poor run of form towards the end of the season, where they drew two and lost six, possibly due to fatigue.

On the European front, Frankfurt had an impressive run to the semifinals of the Europa League and Hasebe was accorded the compliments.

“The 35-year-old veteran, who exhibited calm composure and a high degree of accurate passing, is still one of the elites of the league in his position.”

Here are Kicker‘s top 10 centrebacks (#1 – 6 are “World Class” and #7 – 10 are “runner-up”):

01 Mats Hummels (Bayern Munich)

02 Jonathan Tah (Bayer Leverkusen)

03 Willi Orban (RB Leipzig)

04 Niklas Sule (Bayern Munich)

05 Makoto Hasebe (Eintracht Frankfurt)

06 Ibrahima Konate (RB Leipzig)

07 Martin Hinteregger (Eintracht Frankfurt)

08 Niklas Stark (Hertha Berlin)

09 Niklas Moisander (Werder Bremen)

10 Nordi Mukiele (RB Leipzig)

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Source: Yahoo

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